The Spear at My Side
by Den3424
Summary: A close friend. A less than proud Beta tester. Taisuke Ishoyama, or Taiyama, logged into SAO halfheartedly, before realizing he had to do his very best to keep himself and his best friend Asuna Yuuki alive. He makes it his duty to fight by her and battle to the end, and be the spear at her side. (More Details on profile)
1. Chapter 1: The Worst Birthday Gift Ever!

Chapter 1: Worst. Birthday Gift. Ever!

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 _Disclaimer: SAO is not mine. The only thing I own are the characters I have created. Thank you._

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 _November 6th, 2022. SAO's Alpha Launch_

 **..**

 **POV: TAIYAMA**

 **..**

 ** _Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!_**

The bell rang loudly, before I approached the middle of the ring with my glove extended, offering it respectfully to my opponent, the other person competing with me for the final. He tapped it back, nodding in respect.

We got into our stances, the match had begun!

"Gooo Taisuke!" I heard my chestnut haired best friend, Asuna Yuuki, cheer from the crowd with a fist raised in the air.

I held back, playing defensively as I heard the room roar.

He jabbed at me incessantly. I began to use my fail proof strategy, I called it the one round punch out. They'd tire themselves out against my guard, and then I'd counterattack and knock them out throwing everything I had at them.

He was faster than I'd expected, jabbing at me quickly, his rights were fast too. I dodged and rolled, his blows became faster and faster. My sharpened reflexes were used to evade his attacks, boxing was nothing new to me. I had done it for years. I held energy, not striking back until I saw the clock behind my opponents shoulder.

Perfect, the round had thirty seconds left.

I was still covered in sweat from twirling about his jabs all round, and then I unleashed my counter attack. The crowd roared in excitement and anticipation, seeing my sudden countering, same with my friend Asuna, still cheering me on. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw two empty seats next to her. Seeing this again just made me angrier, fueling my strength.

He grunted as he threw a fast right to my cheek, I dodged it and began to counter punch to his ribs, throwing all of my adequate strength into it. A clean shot from me was no joke, even at this high school championship.

My plan worked perfectly, he was too tired from attacking me all round and was pretty tired. Too tired to block my attacks that were coming his way.

He began to keel over, before I attacked again, my green glove brimming with power as I punched with all I had, my dark brown hair whipping about as I attacked. I launched a strong yet fast right straight to his eye. He dodged it but I saw this coming, I had my left prepped up and I hooked it into his right side temple, immediately after.

The punch was so powerful, I only needed to unload a right completely on his cheek, before he fell to the ground cold.

Asuna screamed in happiness with the crowd, rising out of her seat.

I then bowed to the crowd smiling, I won!

...

I removed the dark green boxing wraps from my hands as Asuna entered my car, an old silver MX-5 Miata, my shimmering bronze trophy sitting in my lap.

"Wow. That looks handsome." Asuna chortled seeing the long silver trophy, about to enter it.

"Oh. Er. Thanks, you still need a ride to the game store?"

The girl nodded, closing the silver door on her left, "Mhm. You know where it is right?"

I smirked, "You've been looking at that place ever since they announced Argus' new title. What was it again?"

"Oh please Ishoyama." She said as I started up the aged engine, "You know what it is."

I left the championship parking lot as I kept talking to her, "You've had your eye on her for a while. Looking forward to playing it?"

"Oh hell yeah!" My chestnut haired friend said cheerfully, "I'm gonna kick butt in that game for sure. Aren't you gonna get a copy?"

"Nah." I said shaking my head, pulling out onto the street from the parking lot, "I tried the beta. The game's just not for me."

"Oh c'mon. I heard from some beta testers the game was amazing!"

"They're lying. There were some flustering design choices." I admitted.

"Well Dad said I could get one, plus they probably made the game better since the beta." She said raising her finger, "I'll buy you a copy too if you'd like."

"Asuna...No." I said simply.

"C'mon!" She pleaded, "We've known each other since we were in diapers, you can't do me this one solid?"

I sighed, "Look. I have the hardware from the Beta. You know that helmet thingy?...The Nerve Gear? I don't want to play."

"Fine." She said crossing her arms.

I could tell she wasn't cool with this, she did this sort of stuff all the time, "Asuna, tell me what's up okay?"

"You'd be the only person I'd know all right, jeez." Asuna said looking out the window shyly.

"So? You can make great friends in that game." I said remembering the beta.

She stayed silent, as I drove down the street stiffly.

..

We reached the counter and Asuna drew her wallet, "Two copies of Sword Art online please."

"Asuna..." I said reproachfully.

She looked at me, "Dad never paid you for all those rides you've been giving me everywhere. Plus its your birthday!"

"I'm fine without the new copy, Asuna, please."

A reddish brown haired young man behind me cleared his throat, "Can you please hurry this up? I want to start the tutorial like now!"

I shrugged, "Whatever. I'll play it for like an hour then drop it. Don't complain to me at school tomorrow that I didn't play it."

"Oh Ishoyama! Thank You!" She said jumping into my arms and hugging me.

I hugged my best friend back, gripping the red material of her jacket tightly, before letting her pay for my copy of the game.

She carried the two copies of SAO with her back to my car out in the parking lot, past the long lines of people waiting to buy the game stretching outside.

Asuna passed me the plastic blue box she bought for me, "Happy 16th Birthday Taisuke."

I set it down in the water bottle slot that usually held my canteen for boxing.

"So. Are you actually gonna play it?" She asked me.

"Of course."

"Yay! I can't wait to meet you in-game!" She said happily, opening her copy.

"Whoa." She said looking at the little blue chip, "That goes into the game slot right?"

"I don't know Asuna, what do you think?" I asked sarcastically.

"Ha-ha, very funny." She said punching my shoulder lightly, as I started up the old engine and pulled out onto the street.

"Hey Taisuke, how are you allowed to drive? You're a little too young right?" The girl asked, leaning on her hand posted against the window.

"Yeah. But apparently, this Miata my dad bought me classifies as a small special vehicle. Got my license earlier today."

"So you've been practicing?"

I nodded, braking before the red light.

"Your parents weren't there at the tournament, do you want to talk about that?" She asked, probably remembering my furious nature during the final match.

The light turned green, and my car rolled ahead with traffic. I shook my head, pressing the accelerator, "What's there to say? They didn't show up, so what?"

"All right then." She said shyly, turning her head from looking at me after seeing me snap quickly.

I pulled up right in front of her house.

"See ya tomorrow." Asuna said before walking off. Before I drove away, she spoke over her left shoulder, "Oh, and Ishoyama. When I meet you in-game, I'm gonna kick your butt."

"I look forward to it." I said in a bored voice before rolling up my window and driving off.

...

After getting all of my homework finished in my room, I booted up my PC on my desk and loaded up a video I'd been watching before I took my special vehicle's test.

"So Mr. Kayaba. Your game is the very first of its kind. A VR MMO. How do feel about that?"

The white lab coated game designer cleared his throat, "Well I'm very glad you asked that Ms. Inoe. We've been taking the players feedback from the Beta, and there was a strong opinion a lot of...refining needed to be done to the game's mechanics. Design flaws all that." The man kept speaking, "We've definitely been taking Beta testers words in mind. And we have some very special stuff made up for all players." He said, smiling at the reporter talking to him.

"Do you look forward to next month's launch?"

"Of course I do. It'll be gaming's most historic moment. I'm sure of it." The man said calmly, taking a sip of his coffee from the porcelain table in the news studio.

The reporter turned to her television screen smiling, "That was Akihiko Kayaba, designer of upcoming game Sword Art Online. Back to you Takeru."

I paused the video, hitting my keyboards's space bar, and scrolled down to the description of it.

The news broadcast recording had been posted over three weeks ago, they had a month to refine the huge number of strange design decisions Kayaba and his team made. I encountered them myself when I tested the Beta. And were it not for those flaws, I think I would've loved the game.

I turned my head from my desktop screen to the blue box she had bought me for my birthday, still laying on my desk.

"Craap..." I said, rolling around in my desk chair and thinking, my back facing the paused video on screen.

 _I don't have to play it. I can just tell Asuna I played it for a bit and make up some stuff I remembered from the Beta...But she's my best friend! I can't just lie to her! And she paid with her father's own hard earned money to get me it! It'd be wrong for me to bail on her like that._

 _She supported me at my own boxing tournament, I have to support her too!_

"Huhhh..." I groaned, sighing deeply, "Goddammit Asuna." I said hooking up my Nerve Gear helmet to my PC.

 _They must have improved it since Beta, maybe this won't be so bad._ I mumbled in my head tying my dark green gym shorts tightly.

I laid on my bed, helmet on my head, and closed my eyes before lazily saying, "Link Start..."

 **DDrrrrring!**

The colorful pixels rushed towards my face before I got logged into the game.

I was dropped onto Floor one obviously. Luckily, the system had registered my old avatar already.

Thank god I was using my old avatar, because it was just me in-game.

Hell I even used the same gamer-tag from the beta, which was nice of the guy who made this game, which was my surname mixed with my first name: Taiyama.

My avatar was me essentially. With my exhausted but cheerful face, and tall stature. I had a forest green undershirt beneath my Level 1 Leather Jerkin. As I usually had from the beta, I had my samurai style su, or straight Yari hung behind my back. It was a spear, my favorite and only weapon in the game.

I held my finger out in front of my face, dang.

Nice graphics, but I still didn't like this game very much.

 _I'll go find her and get the hell out of here._ I thought, getting bored in seconds.

I saw a player getting whooped out a couple paces from where I was and walked to her, my boots passing just through the virtual grass. She had vermilion hair and a disgruntled look on her older face.

"Wassup Asuna. Cool to see you here."

"How do you know my name?" She asked looking at me as I approached.

"You used your actual name for your gamer-tag?" I asked, laughing at her slightly, "Holy crap, I bet you're gonna get wrecked when you try to hit the most basic mob. Oh look, what a surprise." I said smugly, seeing the Level One Hog knock her to the ground.

"Shut the hell up!" She shrieked getting tossed about by the pig.

"Ugh. Step aside." I said tiredly.

Using the decently buffed strength stat my avatar gave me, I forced the boars head into the ground under my boot.

Then I powered up my yari, or classic samurai spear, the blade glowing lime green using a Level 1 Spear Skill: [Downward Thrust], and shoved it into its head, the mob blowing away to glass pieces.

The results screen sprinkled to life after the mob was defeated. The Exp I got from it was pitiful, but it was a pig so hey, whatever.

"Wow. Look Asuna, I defeated the most powerful mob in the whole game for you!" I taunted.

She stood up and brushed some virtual dirt off her chest, "Only one person I know would be as cynical and tired as you. You're Taisuke aren't you? Clever gamer-tag by the way, combining your two names."

"Why do you look like you're 18?" I asked.

"I didn't want to look 15 okay?" She said looking away shyly.

"Oh my god!" I said slapping my knee and laughing, leaning over, "The Great Asuna of house Yuuki, daughter of one of the most respected CEOs in Tokyo is ashamed of her age in game!"

"Shut up!" She yelled turning around, "Not all of us are scared of what we look like in real life! Why'd you make your avatar look exactly like you?"

I shrugged, "Nothing to be ashamed of I guess." I then let in a deep breath, looking around at the familiar floating emerald green plains of Aincrad, "Damn. I still remember the Beta. This place is just as beautiful as I remember. I'm actually glad you brought me back to reminisce Asuna."

She snorted, "No you don't. You still think this game sucks don't you?"

I grunted, "Mf. You know me well." As she rolled her amber eyes I asked a question, "Hey Asuna, how'd you get into video games anyway? I thought you were the most straight-laced rich girl ever."

She crossed her arms and looked at me, "As if! Kouichirou let me borrow his helmet for this game, plus he's the one who suggested I should play it."

Asuna looked at the spear I had slung over my back, "Whoa. Cool yari, where'd you get it?"

"Well. I defeated a mob of fierce flying demon monkeys on Floor 34 of the beta. I was rewarded with a randomly generated item, but it was a glitch in the game! It allows me to become the most powerful player in the game!"

The girl was impressed, her eyes widening, "Whoa! Really?"

"No dum-dum." I taunted smirking, "Its just a basic Yari I got from the avatar creation screen jeez. Well! This is already boring." I said sighing, "Seeing you get your butt whooped by the most basic mob in the game is funny, but I have something better to do."

"And what would that be?" Asuna asked looking at me with her hands on her hips.

"Literally anything else." I said cynical as always.

I tried to log out but somehow, the button was empty.

It took me about four seconds before I started to freak out.

 _Oh no! Oh no! Oh no! Was I stuck in this game I barely liked?_

"Taisuke. I mean Taiyama! Calm down bro! It's not like we're actually stuck in the game right now. Wait how do I open the menu?"

I looked at Asuna, "Are you serious? You just swipe down."

"Really?"

"I know right? Whatever, just swipe down."

She did so and tried to log out, "Crap you're right. How the hell do I get out of here?"

"Wait are we being teleported?" I asked feeling a small tingle before being teleported to a large arena type place.

I looked around the plaza, Asuna was right there next to me.

I saw the literally thousands of players currently logged in being ported around me.

My usual cynical mind went to work, "Wait. How is there no lag with the ten thousand people being ported to the same place?"

"Sh!" Asuna hissed at me.

Soon, red hexagons filled the dome above us and I felt a pit of fear in my stomach grow.

A red glob of blood formed and I saw my best friend wrinkle her nose next to me, "Ugh. Stupid M-rating."

A dark ominous figure appeared, he was covered in an enormous red cloak. People were scared but I chuckled at him.

 _Dramatic entrance huh?_ Pretty cliche bro.

"Hello! I am Akihiko Kayaba, creator and head programmer of this world. Your new lord and savior."

I raised an eyebrow, and the figure floating continued to monologue.

"Just kidding. I have some interesting news for you all. Has anyone seen Tron or played Everquest?"

He looked around, "Really? Ten thousand people, and not one person has seen that movie?"

I got what he was saying, having seen the movie, "Oh crap." I said frowning, raising my hand slowly. I wouldn't ever admit to playing Everquest, because honestly, that was an experience that was far worse than this one was so far.

"Ah! He gets it! Anyway. There's something I should address with you all. You're all pretty much boned. No I'm serious. I have no other way of explaining it."

Everyone was confused, and one player screeched, "What're you talking about?"

"Are you guys kidding me? If your HP reaches zero, you'll die in real life too. How you may ask? Fine, if enough electrical current is sent around the circuits around your cranium, your brain will be fried and you'll die. You dig?"

We all grew shocked, many players ran around screaming, "We're dead!"

"We're all gonna die!"

"I should've donated to charity more!"

"I should've told my girlfriend I cheated on her with her sister!"

A huge conundrum broke out, people running about and screaming.

I looked at Asuna. She was crying, "I'm so sorry Ishoyama."

"Asuna..." I said grabbing, essentially my only friend now, and bringing her to my chest to comfort her.

Kayaba sighed disappointingly, "Amazing. You all cannot handle a crisis properly. You know what. I'm just gonna mute you all."

To shut off all the rabble, he muted everyone.

The shouting stopped and he un-muted everyone so they'd get the picture, "All right. So to successfully escape my masterpiece of death, you have to reach level 100 of the castle Aincrad." He explained, a huge model of the game appearing in front of him, "Thus, beating the game. Any questions?"

I raised my right hand, as she wiped aside some tears next to me, "Yeah. Player Taiyama here, I think your game is pretty bad. Can I leave?"

"Uh...No. If I let you out, then everyone should be let out?"

"Would that be so bad?" I asked the enormous red cloaked figure floating in the air.

"Er...Yes..." He said slowly.

I felt my fists tighten in fury.

He'd lied to me. He'd lied to everyone around me. He was this maniac trapping us in this virtual badly designed nightmare of a game.

I started screaming throwing my hands up, "You...son of a-!"

"Whoa!" Kayaba kept his menu open, interrupting me, "Watch the language there kiddo! Let me enable the profanity filter real quick..."

"You're a genocidal, nihilistic, self righteous and totally nonsensical bastard! Let us out you-"

I was promptly muted and the Game Master chuckled lowly, "Ah. Much better. Now, let me explain real quick why I did this."

"Since I was a child I loved playing with puppets, dancing them on strings. I played video games that gave me power over virtual people, and boy... Did it feel nice." Kayaba said, growling ominously, his red cloth covered fist tightening in pleasure, "And now I can mess with real people!"

"Our good friend Taiyama was right. I do use self righteous nihilism to justify all this. If I logged you all out right now, I'd still go to jail for even letting this happen, allowing Nerve Gear Helmets to be distributed en masse. So! Might as well have some fun before I die!"

"Now, I have ten thousand little puppets to play with. Have fun beating the hardest game ever conceived to the human mind! Oh! I almost forgot to remind you all again, if you die in-game here, without a pain absorber by the way...Your brain will be popped like a balloon by a needle holding three year old."

Kayaba then forced all avatars in the game to be real life versions of their players, his menu open with him. Didn't change anything for me, but I didn't care, "Wow. You all look totally unprepared for the cavalcade of existential death that's about to come your way! Have fun!" Kayaba chortled chuckling before disappearing.

A now chestnut haired Asuna cried into my chest, "Taisuke...I'm so, so, so sorry. You're gonna die..." She looked up, her amber orbs brimmed with tears, "And its all my fault..."

I shook my head, before I led her out of the plaza walking into the Town of Beginnings.

I gripped her hands kindly and comforted her, "Asuna. We're not gonna die." My glowing orange eyes burned into hers warmly, "Because we're going to beat the hell out of this game."

"Together." I added confidently.

I held my pinkie out like when we were kids, and said our old promise, "Friends to the end?"

She nodded slowly, her chestnut locks bouncing, "Friends to the end."

We gripped each other's pinkies, and I leaned in and hugged her.

Asuna kept crying, and I shed a tear with her. I cried not because I was gonna die. Honestly, I was more afraid of what Asuna'd do, and how it would impact her, if her only friend in this game so far left her. I was crying right now, not because I'd die.

But right now, I cried because I was stuck inside my least favorite game ever created. At least my best friend was there with me. I guess the irony in all this is that I was probably going to die playing my least favorite game that never should've been made.

Sword Art Online.

The worst scripted and designed video game I'd ever played. And just because Asuna convinced me to start playing with her, I'd regret it forever.

To top everything off, the damn profanity filter was enabled...

 _Yay..._

Which really sucked because I had some choice words to use with my good friend Kayaba...

Still comforting Asuna, I wound down about what an utterly crazy day this had been.

I got my special vehicle drivers license. I turned 16. I won my first boxing championship. And then I got stuck in this death game, just to end a perfect day in a perfect manner.

I remembered how in Kindergarten, the best friend of mine currently sobbing into my chest bought me an old figurine set of the Go-Bots. Right now, I'd take that outdated play set made of plastic over this game any day.

It was now official.

This wasn't just the worst birthday gift Asuna'd given me.

It was the worst birthday gift ever.

...

...

...

 _A/N: Quick shout out to Marcus Cersy for helping me with the story picture. The guy told me how to make it, plus he's awesome and makes incredibly compelling stories! Thanks man! Have a nice day! -Den_


	2. Chapter 2: My Best Friend went Berserk

Chapter 2: My Best Friend Went Berserk

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 _(Note: Again, I don't own SAO. Just thought I'd mention that)_

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..

 **POV: ASUNA**

...

It was only about midday before I witnessed this rather odd thing occur.

I watched as Taiyama sat in the grass, the wind whistling through his dark brown hair, eyes closed. What was strange to me was seeing how this snarky and usually joking boy who I'd known for years was suddenly so at peace with everything. Even in this death game.

I spoke out, "Hey...Uh...what're you doing?"

"Sh." He hissed, spear still attached to his back.

"Taiyama...we should be leveling right now. Don't you think?"

"Sh." My idiotic best friend said, eyes still closed.

There was utter silence, as he kept sitting there with his legs crossed, eyes closed.

"Taiyama." I said, crossing my arms and looking at him.

He still said nothing.

"Do you hear that?" He whispered, opening his eyes, as I stood over him, "Its the sound of her legend."

"Wh-what legend?"

"Ancient Shinto tales tell of a legendary warrior princess by the name of Eron. She would always lay by the sea, listening to it howl for hours. It whispered to her. It taught her to fight. To control her weapon, to live. The whispers of the wind taught her everything. They...raised her."

Groaning in impatience, I was starting to complain like he always would, " 'Yama, get the hell up."

"Sh. Listen." He mumbled, whispering.

After breathing in quickly, I kept speaking to him, "Taiyama. If I do this, will you please get up and level with me?"

"Yes." He said, eyes still closed.

After a decent sigh of disbelief, I crossed my legs and sat down next to him. I heard the wind of the game whistle through my ears, lifting my long hair.

"Do you feel it?" He asked after a moment, both our eyes closed.

"No." I said flatly.

I kept sitting cross legged like the boy next to me, listening to the wind blow.

"Wait..." I said slowly.

I began to feel this weird sensation traveling through my body. It moved like a happy syrup, slow, methodically. I understood it after a little bit. The way to suppress my anxiety about surviving in this game was simple. This party I'd formed with him apparently was something else. He was teaching me to calm myself, to let my mind flow free like the wind. Wherever or whenever the hell Taiyama got so wise, I will never know.

Actually, I still couldn't tell if he's messing with me or not, considering how often he does stuff to just joke around. But this wisdom was strange.

I heard him snickering next to me, and I whipped my head to him, "Wait, you were kidding?"

He laughed out loud, smacking his leather jerkin covered stomach and still sitting next to me, mouth widely grinning, he said, "You know me better than this. Talk about a stupid decision."

After helping me up from sitting cross legged on the green hill, Taiyama said, "There's a small forest not far from here. I remember it from the Beta. Its filled with decently leveled mobs, perfect for leveling."

I nodded, "Okay, lets go to it."

As we walked off the hills towards the small forest I saw a cobblestone bridge over a river. There were two girls about to cross it, one with a mace at her hip, and a skirt below a pink undershirt, the other with the same skirt and a blue undershirt, a long sword tied to her waist.

I had to admit, they were both pretty, but the long sword user was undeniably gorgeous.

When approaching the bridge, my best friend had the genius idea of staring at the black haired girl.

We reached the middle of the bridge, Taiyama was drooling while looking at the long sword user, "She's...the most beautiful girl I've ever seen..." He said, hearts in his eyes, hands pressed together.

Her freckled dark brown haired friend rolled her eyes, "C'mon Kanoi, lets go. This dweeb's staring at you."

The girl was actually offended, "What the hell are you looking at?"

After pushing my friend behind me I began apologizing, "Sorry, he's a fool around pretty girls sometimes, he-"

The long sword user stood taller, "I've been itching to fight someone ever since the Beta."

"He didn't mean anything by it!" I cried, trying to knock Taiyama out of his trance by nudging him tightly in the side with my elbow, but the mesmerized boy was still out of it.

After walking across the bridge, her freckled spoke kindly, offering her hand to me, "Sorry about that. My name's Lisbeth."

"Don't talk to these noobs Lis." Her black haired friend said crossing her arms, "I want to wreck this guy." She said, her calm fury matching her incredible beauty somehow.

"He was looking at you, damn!" The mace user cried while looking at her, "What is your problem Kanoi?"

She sighed, opening her menu and sending Taiyama a message, "One v one me. Now."

"Wh-What?" The boy asked in surprise, breaking out of his trance slowly, seeing the duel request in front of him.

"You heard what I said, duel me. Now." Kanoi said, looking at him with her bright cat like green eyes, the girl staring daggers at him.

Something told me this girl was either crazy strong, or just crazy. Or both. I wanted to warn the cynical boy at my right, but he acted before I could stop him.

Taiyama smiled, "Sure. Let's do this." He looked at the notification that was sent his way.

 **Duel Application**

 **Will you accept this duel request?**

 **Opponent: Kanoi**

 **Duel type: 1 vs 1**

Taiyama smirked, impulsively hitting the circular blue [Accept] button without an ounce of thought and choosing the first strike mode, drawing his spear, "Mm...This is going to be fun."

"Yes, yes it will." The jet black haired girl said, drawing a perfectly clean and shining English long sword, the blade ringing.

I looked at the two of them, Kanoi looked about a few months younger than my friend, they were both tall and Beta testers. If Taiyama's life wasn't on the line here, I think I would be entertained while watching.

Seeing him act this way made me realize that my friend was probably as arrogant as he was sarcastic. But it was also possible this girl was crazy enough to attack him if the duel wasn't accepted anyway.

"Kanoi!" Her friend barked, "He was looking at you for crying out loud!" The dark brown haired girl shrieked, as the sixty second timer ran down in swirls, "Don't you think you're overreacting?"

"This is SAO, I can do whatever the hell I want." She responded calmly, staring at Taiyama with her cold light green eyes.

I looked at him, "Bro, don't loose."

"Please, this won't take very long."

"But she can kill you!" I cried scared.

"Chick seems sane, I mean she challenged me after I looked at her...wait." He said, as the timer approached the ten second mark. After sighing, Taiyama shook his head, "Besides, its not to the death. Its only a first strike duel."

Since the first person to reach half of their health would loose the match, I was hoping this Kanoi girl wouldn't kill him afterwards, but I just had to wait.

The timer hit zero and the two teens zoomed across the bridge, the duel beginning.

Kanoi attacked first, Taiyama keeping MP as he tried to evade her monstrous attacks. I saw her friend Lisbeth stand on the other side of the bridge, crossing her arms while watching the fight.

It soon became apparent how good of a player this girl I had just met was.

She powered up her long sword, the blade whirring loudly and becoming a blue line soaring towards the boys neck. He whipped his head back, avoiding the tip of her sword by the skin of his teeth, before she started to attack relentlessly.

Kanoi hacked at her opponent, causing my best friend to fly off his feet after he was hit with the flat side of the blade on his arm.

The blow was so strong he went into the air and hit the cobblestone of the bridge, his health went down by a small bit, making me sweat nervously while watching.

Taiyama rolled aside as I gasped, Kanoi standing over him and trying to bury the tip of her sword in his eye, the metal jutting into the bridge.

"Come back here pervert!" The crazy girl shrieked screaming, sprinting after him.

The boy jumped onto his feet, managing to actually parry aside a super fast slash from Kanoi with the tip of his spear, and coming back with a sudden green colored thrust.

She saw this coming from miles away and slapped aside his yari, and transitioning from parrying, the black haired girl went for a hack at his throat, making Taiyama step back and give ground.

He jumped onto the stone guardrail of the bridge, jumping over a blindingly fast swipe from Kanoi's long sword, and my jaw dropped.

 _I could barely see that attack! This girl is some player!_

What amazed me was how skilled these two both were, making their duel incredibly fluid, every strike was instantly met with a quick parry or counter attack, almost like they were moving with each other.

A quick slash from Kanoi, my friend following with an instant side step and then a counter thrust. The story continued, neither managing to land a desired clean hit on each other.

After leaping back onto the main pathway of the bridge, the male Beta tester swung out with a wonderful slash, only for Kanoi to respond with a quick dodge and a counter thrust.

Taiyama started giggling, seeing the blurring thrust coming towards his eye and side stepping the girl while taunting her, "You're overreacting! I was just looking at you!" He chortled, still giggling before loading up a quick slash with his spear.

The tip of his yari glowed an emerald hue of green, before the dark brown haired boy came out from his side step with the fastest attack I'd ever seen him do. He threw his whole body into the swipe, a huge glowing emerald line flying towards the girl.

Kanoi, smirking while blocking the slash instantly, the blade meeting her long sword with a clang. She rolled her neck before stepping off him for a moment.

She paced around the male Beta tester, cocking her head to the side slightly, stalling to build up MP.

My friend was apparently the weaker player, his chest heaving up and down, wiping some virtual sweat off his forehead, glistening into glass shards in the air. I assumed they were at the same level considering how early in the game we all were, plus they were both really strong.

The battle was apparently going into a higher gear, as Taiyama gripped his spear tightly, his smirk sliding off his face as he tried to keep Kanoi at bay with his extended yari.

"Th-that all you got?" Taiyama said while taunting weakly, still panting.

"No." She said calmly, showing she was not tired in the slightest before gripping her long sword's black grip tightly and smiling.

Kanoi kept circling him, as he turned in a smooth arc to keep his eye on her with his yari extended.

In the fastest attack I've ever seen, Kanoi lunged at him, going for a thrust at his eye.

Taiyama escaped death narrowly, turning his head and whipping it aside to avoid the tip of her English blade again, before trying to shove the tip of his spear in his opponent's stomach with a fast counter thrust.

Laughing, Kanoi quickly responded by parrying it aside and taunting him back, "Too slow!"

She came out with a couple quick hacks at his body, the poor boy barely able to defend himself against this psychotic demon with the face of an angel. She kept attacking, showing she had far more movement points stored than my friend.

She turned into a black haired blur, attacking him again, but this time, she was far too fast to evade.

My friend took a direct thrust to the shoulder, making his HP drop by about a fifth of his health gauge, making me gasp.

"Taiyama!" I cried, seeing him try to stand his ground against the air shattering attacks of Kanoi.

She disarmed him, showing off her incredible strength and speed, knocking his spear out of his hand with a clean swipe at his right hand, cutting it off in the process, a red pixelated stump taking its place. Resulting in an extremely shrill shriek from Taiyama, the boy wailing pain, the screams continuing with the attacks the girl unleashed unto him.

Kanoi yelled loudly, hacking and slashing through the boy as many times as she could, the girl going insane making his health drop incessantly, becoming a black haired blue in the process, dozens of electric blue lines slicing through him, long red pixel filled scratches across his chest.

The duel ended, the female Beta tester winning.

However, Kanoi didn't stop there, after winning the duel, Taiyama's HP well past half way cut, she humiliated him.

I squinted at her, concentrating.

 _The hell are you doing?_

The girl began to show that she was not only a psycho, but also a cruel person. Kanoi kicked Taiyama in the face, the boy starting to be beaten on the ground.

The second I saw this happening, my hand dashed to my rapier, but all it took was a simple action from Kanoi to stop me. The lime green eyed Beta tester stared at me and, still making direct eye contact with me, calmly wrapped her long sword free left hand around my best friends face.

Seeing Taiyama's chin being cupped so arrogantly made me angry, the poor boy cringing and closing his eyes.

Face scrounging up in discomfort and fear, Taiyama whimpered out, "A-Asuna...don't help."

"But she'll kill you!" I said shrieking.

"She'll...kill you too." He said, groaning back, before the black haired girl turned his face to meet hers.

"That's right girly." Kanoi purred, still cupping his face, "Keep still."

As much as I hated it, he was right. It was completely logical, if I had helped him now, she'd just kill the both of us. And possibly her own friend standing calmly watching this, if she had the nerve to intervene.

The girl smirked calmly at him.

Kanoi began to beat my best friend to death, gripping the top of his head, clutching his scalp tightly and kicking him right in the eye with her knee.

I don't know what must've hurt worse, the pain absorber-less hits he was taking to his body while laying on the ground, or the Adam West inspired Batman sound effects playing each time he was hit. God, I hated Kayaba for including that.

The cheesy [Pow!], [Bam!], and [Boff!] sound effects added with each cobblestone bridge trembling hit just made me shiver in rage, Kanoi laughing her head off, still beating him on the ground.

His health kept draining slowly, my rage turning into fear seeing it slowly approach zero.

Hearing her watery giggle mixed with the Batman punch sound effects just made me shake with anger.

 _Kanoi...you bitch! You bitch!_

Still giggling, she kicked him so hard in the face that a few of his virtual teeth flew out of his mouth, and shattered away into glass shards. His health kept dropping heavily with each hit, closer and closer to zero.

I had only met her just a few minutes ago, but nothing made me more furious with how psychotically happy she was about beating him. Seeing my only friend being kicked to death while being forced to do nothing about it started to make me feel little less than pure rage induced fear over his state.

To say I hated her was an understatement.

"YOU WHORE!" I roared, seeing her grip the top of Taiyama's head again, and lifting him slightly from laying on the ground. Kanoi dropped his head back onto the bridge, before she forced his head under the same boot she slammed repeatedly into him.

The girl made direct eye contact with me again, her mirror like lime green orbs reflecting off mine before she spoke, still forcing a squirming Taiyama under her boot, "Take a good look girly." She cooed arrogantly, my chest still rising and falling in anger, "Don't ever let men hold you back from who you are." She leaned forward, adding more weight forced onto his head, "Ever."

"Let him go you psycho!" I barked shrieking, his head still under her jet black boot.

"I think I'm good." Kanoi said calmly, picking up my best friend entirely, and letting him dangle in the air from her high grip. She threw him to the raised grey stone guardrail of the bridge, the boys beaten and boot marked face and chest sunken sadly.

Kanoi raised her long sword in the air, preparing to kill him.

Before she shoved the tip of her long sword into his stomach, her freckled friend watching shouted, "WAIT!"

The dark brown haired girl named Lisbeth sprinted across the bridge and stood in between Kanoi's blade and my best friend.

"Don't do it!" She pleaded.

"Lis, get the hell out of my way."

"Kan, don't."

"I can do whatever the hell I want in here." Kanoi snorted, turning around in a circle, palms extended upwards, "This is SAO goddammit! Even if I get out of this death trap alive, which I'm sure will happen, I want one happy memory to carry away from it."

"This?" I cried in disbelief, "This is a happy memory for you?"

"Of course it is!" She cried, "It is so incredibly satisfying to pound someone's face in. You should try it some time."

I felt my fists tighten at my sides, to the point where I think my hands would've become frozen statued images of fists.

The freckled girl spoke to her, "If you kill him. You'll have to kill me too."

The long sword user looked at her, "Wait. Why do you care if I end this loser?"

"Because its the right thing to do." She said calmly, blinking.

Not wanting to kill her friend, Kanoi still had enough mental sanity to respect her friends wishes. Sighing in disappointment, the girl re-seathed her long sword, "Fine. I'll kill him some other time then. When you're not around..."

Kanoi began to walk away and her friend spoke to the boy still laying on the ground, "Any time you need help hit me up. Name's Lisbeth."

I looked at her, "You still gonna party with her?"

"After seeing her do that to your friend? The hell do I look like? Someone who actually likes this game?"

"Right..." I said slowly, assuming her ex-friend Kanoi convinced her to play.

Taiyama's health gauge was literally an inch from death, this girl had saved his life. I smiled at her retreating back when seeing her walk off, glad she knew Kanoi wouldn't hurt her. After she left, I gazed upon the destroyed state of Taiyama. Still leaning on the stone guardrail, the boy gave me a grin, his smile partly shattered by Kanoi's kicks.

"H-Hey 'suna. How do I look?" He asked, still smiling.

"Terrible."

After passing him a health potion quickly, I wiped aside a tear, "I almost thought you died there."

"Not yet." He muttered, chugging the red drink in seconds before handing it back to me. Taiyama looked down, "I'm sorry."

"Don't say that." I said sniffling.

"I'm sorry I-"

I cut him off, hugging him and gripping the leather of his Level One leather jerkin, "Stop it. It wasn't you fault."

He hugged me back, his health refilling slowly, "I'm sorry I wasn't strong enough. T-to beat her-"

"Stop." I ordered, pulling away from hugging him and asking, "You okay?"

"I'm fine." He groaned, looking at the slowly re-crystalizing state of his right hand, "I'm hoping it grows back. Along with my teeth, need them both."

"Do you blame yourself for what happened?"

"Not entirely." Taiyama murmured, health still replenishing as he looked down the trail she had walked down, "She's going to pay for what she did."

"Murder isn't right Taisuke." I said, using his actual name to try and get him to listen.

He bit his lip tightly, "I never said I'd murder her. But Kanoi will pay."

After his health had filled all the way up, teeth regrown and right hand re-aqcuired, I looked at the forest he'd wanted to level up in.

...

 **POV: TAIYAMA**

...

She walked by my side, the afternoon's gleaming sun shone brighter than ever on Floor One of the Castle Aincrad. There was a small dirt trail leading into it, and we both walked down it.

Asuna looked at me, "Where exactly are these mobs?"

"They spawn randomly, but still there's something pretty cool I want to get." I said, still walking down the trail towards the center of the forest.

Upon making it, I smiled, "That's it."

"A shield? You dragged me all the way into this forest for a freaking shield?"

I shrugged, looking at it. Luckily, no one else who remembered this item from the Beta had decided to take it, and it sat there, the sunlight gleaming on it. The item had a curved rectangular shape to it, embedded into the stone beneath it. To top it all off, it was green, my very favorite color, and made of strong steel.

"The [Shield of Emirise]." I muttered, "Isn't it beautiful Asuna?"

"No." She said flatly.

"Its the best shield on this floor, and I'll be damned if I don't take it." I said, approaching the item before placing my hands on its sides, "Hey there gorgeous." I said, before driving it upwards, my menu sparkling up upon releasing it from its stone confines.

 **New Item: Shield of Emirise**

I opened my menu, "Hmm. Its got decent defense buffing, with nice durability. Hope its worth the mobs." I said, gripping the light brown straps of the shield with a left fist, my right one gripping my spear.

"Mobs? What mobs?" She asked, head whipping about, hand on the hilt of her rapier.

"Ah. This is what I forgot to tell you." I started, raising a finger as Level 4 Skeletons began to spawn from blue auras, "Every [Embedded Item] in this game spawns enemies. Sorry for not telling you. I als-"

"Taiyama." She said drawing her rapier, "Shut up."

We were both standing on this stone platform in the forest center, and the Skeletons drew sabers. After a quick headcount, there were about twenty of them. Which meant Asuna'd have to handle ten, and I'd have to handle ten.

I sprinted towards a Skeleton, grunting loudly as I shoved the tip of my yari into his eye, the mob shrieking before blasting into glass pieces.

His bony buddy had the same idea, thrusting his saber into my shoulder.

Anger. That was all I felt upon this happening, my pupils dilating.

I was stuck in this damned death game. I was beaten and kicked by a damned girl. This damned skeleton had just lowered my health slightly.

Asuna turned her head from thrusting her rapier into a Skeleton's skull only to hear a single shriek echo across the forest.

"YAAAAAA!"

I screamed, howling like a samurai as I saw a tiny trait glimmer in the bottom of my vision.

 **Blood Lust.**

 **Strength: +14**

 **Speed: +17**

 **Sanity: -31**

Feeling red hot rage course through my body, I hacked apart the mob, the tip of my yari sailing like a green line towards its head dropping the saber stuck into my arm as I cut it down, its skull flying clean off its shoulders.

His friend behind me tried to stick his own saber in my back, only for me to lift my new shield behind my back to protect me while cutting down Skeletons. Pivoting, throwing my hips into it, and throwing everything I had into the swipe, I cleaved off two skulls, the iron lime green glowing tip of my spear flying right through their bony necks, their bones clattering to the leafy forest floor and flying away to glass pieces.

Still howling, I knocked down a Skeleton away with my shield, throwing my item towards it like an opening door. It smacked into a tree, being defeated.

I wasn't thinking. I only saw one thing: enemies to annihilate.

My boots dug into the mud of the forest floor, knocking another skeleton to a tree, defeating it, before shoving my spear straight through a Skeleton's chest, smashing through its sternum, the mob chattering before blowing away to glass pieces.

I sprinted at full speed carrying my shield, before hitting the mob like a bullet train, knocking it so hard to a tree with my new item that it blew away to pieces instantly, the mob defeated in seconds. A skeleton managed to dig his saber into my leg, making me even angrier, the cold blade piercing furious flesh.

"RRRRAAA!" I shrieked, literally kicking his head into the air, making it die in seconds.

The remaining five skeletons turned and fled.

I ran after them, running up a tree before jumping off it into an attack.

Ah, how I love this attack, the Level 12 Spear Skill: [Jump Thrust].

Building up momentum from the leap, I furiously shoved my glowing su yari into the mobs back, the skeleton falling to the ground hissing before it shattered away.

In a single new attack, I slashed through three fleeing skeletons in one right swipe, sprinting up to them, and making one long red line across all their backs, the three skulls turning upwards and shrieking loudly before defeated.

Using a punch, something I had perfected after boxing for years, I knocked the last skeleton to pieces, the blow so strong I cracked its skull open from hitting the back of its head.

The bones blew away and I turned around quickly, only to see Asuna trying to fend off seven bony mobs.

You can imagine what acted for fuel upon hearing her scream, a skeleton digging his saber into her back.

My [Blood Lust] trait only become stronger when hearing this. I became a leather jerkin wearing blur, sprinting with all haste to help her.

I blasted past the stack of skeletons ganging up on her, knocking them into the air with the train like strength of my shield bashes.

She gasped in surprise, seeing me cleave off a skeleton's skull, the mob headless, collapsing to the floor and floating away.

Before the skeletons had time to react, I cut upwards, with an [Upwards Thrust], a green line flying up into a skeleton's head, spearing the skull on the end of my weapon.

When I did this, a skeleton behind me thrusted the tip of his saber into my shoulder, my health dropping from the green to orange ranges.

Further enraged, I flew around, and using the force of my turning upper body, I knocked the skeleton away to a tree, my shield moving with such strength it caught his buddy next to him, destroying them both.

Asuna probably screamed something along the lines of, 'Taiyama calm down!' But I didn't hear her, all I heard was blood pounding in my ears.

I cut down another skeleton, defeating it by slicing across his chest, leaving a red pixelated line across it.

Only then did I collapse, my MP completely exhausted. The [Blood Lust] trait gave me plenty of extra energy, but sadly, a man could only move so much. From then, I was restricted to protecting Asuna's back, kiting away swipes and thrusts at her with my shield.

She cut away rushing skeletons with thrusts, the tip of her rapier flying through the air and ending loads of incoming mobs.

Finally, she had defeated the last skeleton, kicking him to the ground with a boot buried into his shoulder, before pushing the tip of her blade into its nape on the ground, killing it.

It chattered, before passing.

I felt the edges of my vision grow blurry, the [Blood Lust] trait receding from body, making me feel weak and tired. My health was just about half way depleted, and my movement points were probably exhausted.

I saw an icon appear in front of me.

 **Level Up!: Level 12-Level 14!**

"A-Asuna." I said panting, "You alright?"

"I'm fine." She mumbled, sheathing her rapier, "You?"

"Tired." I said, before passing out on the forest floor, my hands sprawled out, dropping my shield and spear.

..

My eyes opened slowly, seeing Asuna hover over me, standing, "Taiyama, you okay man?"

"I-I. Crap, did I."

"Yeah, you blacked out for a second."

"Okay, so where are you now, in terms of Levels?" I asked, looking up at her from laying on the forest floor.

"Fifteen. How'd you move so fast?"

"Got this weird trait. Never heard of this [Blood Lust] thing. Should be nice, I'll use it more often, buff it and make it better with use."

"Don't." She said, " 'Yama, that was frightening. Don't do that."

"Why not? I need to use it."

"Because you looked like an animal." Asuna said calmly, "I doubt you kept any thoughts in your head besides: kill. That isn't healthy."

"Pssh. Saved our lives."

"We'll see." She said, starting off towards the edge of the forest, making me instantly stand up and follow her.

...

After night time had fallen on that day, I wanted to take a spot to reminisce, to think, to rest my head and let my cynical thoughts pervade through my mind.

And like every night, I approached this large hill overlooking the Town of Beginnings. I'd always sit on this same log under a tree and stare at the lights the town emitted, ever since the first day. Apparently, someone already had the same idea.

As I walked towards him, he saw me and began to leave. I extended my hand, "Please. I wish to speak."

He looked at me with his calm black eyes, "Why?"

I sat on my log and patted the space next to me, "Why don't you sit down with me and find out?"

The black haired player sighed, "I...don't like...talking to people." The shy player said.

"Well tell me about it." I said, leaning my head back, and watching Aincrad's beautiful twinkling skyline.

"All right then, why not?" The raven haired player said sitting down next to me.

We both sat there in silence, overlooking the town, seeing all the lights glow in the town. I said nothing, he said nothing. Before I broke it with a spear thrust of a conversation opener.

I smiled, "Strange thing you know? All those people down there? In the town? They're all afraid. Like Cuphead fans after you tell them the smoke bomb should've been nerfed. I saw many players who were too frightened to venture out into the plains and kill mobs, because they were afraid of dying. Wusses."

The teen kept sitting there on the log next to me, staring out over the village, "I can't believe their lives...are sort of our jobs to protect perhaps? Nah probably not."

"Yeah, who'd want to guard shivering sheep man? That's like trying to shepherd all those un-athletic kids who never got picked for the kickball team and trying to turn them into heroes. Oh yeah, that'd be as fun and easy as trying to find some good design in this game."

"That's the kind of cynicism I know and love."

"What do you mean by that?" I asked, turning to the younger teen.

"I mean that I know who you are." He said, "You're Taiyama. I recognize you from the Beta. There's that trademark sarcasm there and everything. You reached one of the highest floors. Ranked twenty first out of the whole Beta Testing platform."

Turning my head from his steely gaze and looking out over the shimmering town again I spoke, "I don't know who you are. But you seem wise." I looked up at the stars, "I read lots of things. Novels. Memoirs. Autobiographies. But my favorites were always old Shinto tales. But one thing I always remember reading about was this one warrior princess. Her name was Eron. Everyone in the kingdom admired her. She was beautiful, strong, and perfect. I always wanted to be like her growing up, even though I was a boy."

He looked at me in surprise, "You wanted to be a princess?"

The conversing continued, the both of us staring up at Aincrad's glimmering stars, "No. I always wanted to be a hero. Not for the glory, but because I wanted to help people. Even though I know their mental and physical weaknesses, I want to protect them nonetheless, it feels nice. Defend them, keep them safe. Alive, happy. That's what keeps me going. My friend, Asuna. My only and best one. I keep fighting to protect her. She's my priority. I don't fight for myself. I always...want to make sure people can't get hurt. You can imagine my rage if I ever saw her in danger."

He smirked, "Or maybe you sound like an idiot."

"Or that." I admitted, turning my head to him, "And why do you fight?"

"Besides to stay alive?" The shorter boy asked, "To see my sister and my mother I guess. I miss them." He said, turning his gaze from the Town of Beginnings to his interlocked hands, "I don't like talking to people because...I've never liked it. I guess I'm just that shy of a person."

"But you don't seem that shy. Why are you saying that?"

The boy shook his black locked head, "Because I often can't control what I do or say a lot. I tend to lash out, and I guess I have a lack of filter."

"Waaah..." I taunted, pretending to cry, "The Beta tester don't have any fwiends..."

Ignoring my snark, he kept speaking after sighing at that, "My whole life, I've been isolated from people, because I'd often push people away like that, and make them hate me or whatever. So I can't make friends because I make comments that just spill out of my mouth."

I smiled, staring out with him again at the Town of Beginnings at night time, "I have the same problem as well. When I was asked how to respond to the Beta, I filled my review with nothing but criticism on how badly designed it was. But you know, I always regretted it. It was still decent fun."

He sighed again, "You're a powerful player. You did well in the Beta, from what I remember from it. Keep that friend of yours alive, I'm sure you can." He muttered, standing up and walking away.

As he stood up and as he walked off, I extended my hand again, shooting up as well and asking, "Wait! What's your name?"

"Kirito." He said calmly, before leaving me alone there.

I sat back down, before another thought hit me, making me chuckle.

 _Perhaps I should write more reviews full of snarky cynicism. Like I did for the Hobbit films. I'm sure I'd be great at it. I mean this game is pretty much impossible because its designed so badly no one can equip items properly in the heat of battle. Ooh, I will tear apart this whole mess on Metacritic when I get out of here. I can make a rhetorical point right now: Even Everquest was better._

I started to stare out over the glimmering village from the hill, the twinkling nights sky still above me.

I palmed the wooden handle of my spear, taking it out from being strapped to my back, and looking at the perfectly clean iron tip, seeing my reflection stare back at me. My orange eyes were staring into each other and I made sure to stay locked with them.

 _I fight to protect you Asuna. I remember going to all of your birthday parties when we were little. I remember that you were there, when Ma taught me to ride a bicycle. Everything. You're like my little sister, and I want to protect you. I want to fight with you. Because I want to help you. You are my best friend. And I thank you for being here on this journey with me. It is now my duty to keep you safe._

A smile crept up on my face.

I guess she's still waiting for me by the fountain. We should speak.

...

...

Asuna looked at me, "Hey, what took so long?"

We made eye contact, and I said nothing, looking at her sit on the fountain where we had made the same friends to the end promise weeks before.

"Sorry, I got caught up speaking to someone." I looked around the Town of Beginnings, "Its crazy isn't it? How many people died fighting?"

She looked down at her hands, "I've heard thousands died to basic design flaws, as if the game was punishing its players for trying to live!"

I kept speaking to her, "That pains me. Earlier today, you heard me speaking on a tale. The story of Princess Eron?"

The chestnut haired girl crossed her arms, "I thought you were messing with me."

I shook my head, resting my shield onto the rim of the fountain, along with my beloved su yari. I closed my eyes, and heard the gush of the fountains water before speaking to her, "I wasn't entirely joking. As a child, Ma told me stories of her. Eron was perfect. When Kanoi beat me, I felt sad about seeing you stand there and watch as I was being beaten to death. But the blows meant nothing next to another pain. A pain that would've never let me experience being with you again."

"Why is that important?" Asuna asked slowly, resting her palms on the cement rim of the fountain.

"Growing up, I always wanted to be like Eron inside. To be strong, valiant and perfect. To be someone who loved the human spirit. Who valued its promise. This game truly is cruel, not only in its bad design, but that it devalues everything she stood for. The reason I act so cynical is because this game prevented me from being this hero, I was instead just another player, another seed in the grain."

"In most RPG's, I was her. This hero. Here I'm nothing. I'm the same goofy boxer I was in the real world."

I looked up again at the stars from the town center, "I know that someplace, somewhere outside of here. Lady Eron has to exist. There must be someone who becomes this candle in the darkness of death." I smiled at my friend, "But in this world, that candle...is you."

"Me?" Asuna asked with a raised eyebrow, believing I was still being condescendingly philosophical.

I looked at her straight in the eye, "Most people are mediocre players here, not knowing how to open their menus or activate sword skills. Having the mental capacity of addled basement dwellers covered in Doritos and Mountain Dew stains. But the human spirit is still something I wish to preserve. And that's you."

"But why me?"

"Because you are everything I ever wanted in a companion. In a friend, a best one at that. You're strong, smart and brave. I wish to protect you, and you are my sole priority, because not only are you this friend of mine, but you are also a dream. A dream of everything that should be fought for. Don't die Asuna."

She smirked, "You sound like a dumbass, dumbass."

I chuckled, "Perhaps. But at least know that whenever I mess with you, or joke about. I still hold a deep respect for you, and I hope you'll never forget that."

"I won't." Asuna said, standing up and walking past me, "Unless you're messing with me." She warned. Before we returned to our small camp near the hill safe point, she muttered something that made me sigh.

"Dumbass."

...

...

As I sat on my sleeping bag cross legged, Asuna looked at me, "So I heard from a few other players when we were in town that people are going to gear up tomorrow to take on the first boss."

I sighed, "Yeah...I know where they're going, I'll take you there in the morning."

When we laid under that huge tree from which the branches extended higher and higher, I hit the lamp between our sleeping bags and mumbled out to her, " 'Night Asuna."

" 'Night Taiyama."

The lamp was deactivated with a small button, and we both rolled over in our sleeping pads, hearing the NPC crickets chirp in harmony in the huge expanses of grass around us. The tree grew from this hill, the hill was filled with grass such as the rest of Aincrad's plains. For all the incredibly strange design decisions Kayaba had made, that was one touch that really added life to the game. One I enjoyed.

"Taiyama?" She asked, "All that stuff you said about Lady Eron or whatever." She leaned on her elbow, looking at me, her long chestnut locks hanging off her head, "You weren't kidding right? You still care about people even though you're a cynic?"

I said nothing, letting the songs of the crickets answer for me. Because in them lay the answer to if what I said was true or not, or just another one of my tricks. It was all her decision. Because as fun as messing with her was, it still could be true.

Or...it couldn't.

..

..

..

 _A/N: Fail, I swear to god, if you start claiming how Kanoi did nothing wrong I will flip my s***._


	3. Chapter 3: How to Roast a Player Base

Chapter 3: How to Roast a Player Base

* * *

 _(Sword Art Online. Is. Not. Mine.)_

* * *

 **..**

 **POV: TAIYAMA**

 **..**

I rolled over in my sleeping bag, before opening my eyes slowly. When they moved to Asuna's sleeping bag, my eyelids flying open after seeing it empty. I picked up my new steel green colored shield and my spear, yelling her name as I looked for her, "Asunaaa!"

Breaking into a sprint, I ran as I yelled after her, "Asunaaa! Where are you!?" I felt my heart beat quicker than it had been in a while, _where the hell was she?_

Seeing a familiar colored mane of burnt cinnamon chestnut, I sighed in relief, "What is your problem?" I asked, snapping.

She didn't even turn her head to look at me, still leaning on the wooden fence, "I wasn't gonna wait for you to wake up all morning. Plus, this is worth it."

"You almost gave me a heart attack! Do you know you can die in this game?! My first thought was-"

"Listen. Open your ears." She said smiling, not turning her head to me, amber eyes glowing in amazement, head turning about.

I frowned, "You're starting to sound like me Asuna."

"I swear I'm not kidding, you have to listen to this." She muttered, still not looking at me, an expression of wonder on her face.

I shrugged, wondering what this sound was.

After silence fell between us, a small song being voiced not too far off from us began to creep into my ears, like a loving tap on the nerves. I almost...fell in love with this feeling, this song.

 **"All the cattle are standing like statues.** **All the cattle are standing like statues, t** **hey don't turn their heads as they see me ride byyyy!** **But a little brown maverick is winking her eeeye."**

I didn't speak English very well, but bless my soul. Those voices were as elegant as smoothed silk. If this song was a meal, I'd want it every day. Every hour, every minute. As much as this hated death trap kept me locked up, I never wanted to leave it now. That's how absolutely angelic the song was being sung.

Trying not to break into tears I stepped over the fence, Asuna asking me, "Yama. Where are you going?"

"I'll be damned if I don't find who's singing this. Or I'll never forgive myself." I said, being lifted off my feet with the pure sweet feeling of the song.

I kept hearing the song as I walked towards it far off source, **"Oh what a beautiful morning. Oh what a beautiful day! I've got a beautiful feeling, everything's going my way!"**

Asuna followed me as I approached the source of the most beautiful thing I had ever heard. The song had the most heart warming sway, not a single note was off, as if the vocal cords they were being strung off were harps played by a Michelangelan deity.

 **"All the sounds of the earth are like musiiic. All the sounds of the earth are like music. The breeze is so busy it don't miss a treeee! And a weepin willer is laughing at meeeee!"**

 **"Oh what a beautiful moooorning! Oh what a beautiful daaaay! I've got a beautiful feeeeling! Everything's going my waaaaayaay! Oh what a beauuutiful day..."** The men whispered singing, standing in the middle of the wheat field.

I fell to my knees in front of the men, wiping aside a tear, "Never, in all my years of cynicism, have I met something I couldn't make fun of. I finally did. That, that was..." I sniffled, wiping aside a tear with Asuna, "That was beautiful."

"Thaank youuuu." The men responded with angelic harmony.

"Who are you guys?" My friend asked.

"We are the Singing knights." Their leader said, brushing a blonde lock behind his ear.

"You guys speak Japanese?" I asked.

"Yeah, we studied it in school. We're from England." His shorter friend next to him said.

"Wait. How are you guys knights?" I pointed out, catching flaws as always.

"We plan to be knights if a special group or something pops up. Plus, its sounded better than the Singing Englishmen."

Asuna cleared her throat, "Yama. The boss room."

"Oh!" I sparked up, "Right! The first boss, I'll take you to the amphitheater. Come with me."

"Wait!" The blonde Englishmen said, his troop of men next to him, "Can we come too? We're not too bad at the game ourselves."

As the men nodded and grunted in agreement, Asuna shrugged, "Sure, Tai, lead the way."

"Sure thing." I said, picking up my tall shield and walking towards the amphitheater, leaving the middle of the wheat field with Asuna and the Englishmen.

As we passed the long tails of flowing and flicking wheat fields flanking the mud trail there, I spoke to the leader of this group of knights, "So uh, what's your name?"

"My player name's Edward. If that's what you're asking."

"Mine's Taiyama." I said walking down the path, the knights chatting with us as we all walked, weapons in hand.

The blonde young English man looked at my chestnut haired friend walking silently and by herself over his shoulder, before turning back to me, "That your girlfriend? She seems hot."

I looked at him, gripping the strap of my shield tightly, "She's 15."

Edward shrugged, broadsword over his shoulder, "Can't blame a guy for pointing out the obvious. You two'd be cute together."

Changing the subject quickly, I panicked, "How'd you end up in Japan?"

"We do charity work, came out here for a special fundraiser. We sing for kids with diseases and stuff, even here."

"Dang, you guys are dedicated."

The man didn't make eye contact with me as he affirmed, "We're part of a religious organization called Voices for Wishes. People request to hear us everywhere and stuff. We got stuck in this place at the mall, they were giving out a free demo of the game...we all tried it..."

I smiled at him, "So you sing for free. Flying around the world to share your gift with slowly dying people?"

Edward nodded, still carrying his broadsword over his shoulder.

Still smiling and walking towards the amphitheater, I looked down at my boots, "I usually make fun of people for being stupid. Thinking this game's well designed and all that, but this game, this world doesn't deserve people like you. You truly would make Eron proud."

"Who's Eron?"

"No one." Asuna said flatly, still undecided if my altruism was a joke or not, getting bored of walking by herself and skipping up to us, "So this boss room, is it hard?"

"Literally the easiest in the game." I muttered.

She frowned, "Its the first boss."

"Exactly." I said winking and pointing a right finger gun at her.

As she rolled her eyes for what seemed like the millionth time to me, Edward smiled, "There's the amphitheater correct?"

"That's it all right." I added, remembering it from the Beta.

As we descended down the steps, Asuna looked around, "Uh...Yama...why are there so many guys?"

I dipped my upper lip underneath my lower one, biting it I then spoke, "Like half the player base is nothing but basement dwelling RPG otakus like me. What'd you expect? Bikini models?"

She brushed a cinnamon chestnut lock off her shoulder, "Yeah but you're...whatever."

As we sat down, the Singing knights not too far off, I gasped, seeing two old friends sitting a little bit lower in the amphitheater a few rows down.

"Aki? Gakuo?" I asked in disbelief.

They turned around while still sitting, "Taisuke?"

We laughed and approached each other, gripping each other's right hands in the classic Judo man grasp, and I said, "Its Taiyama in here guys."

Asuna cleared her throat, "You mind telling me who these two are?"

"My friends from my old Judo club. Meet Aki and Gakuo." I said, moving my hand to introduce them, "Better known here as..."

"Aigen." The spiky black haired ninjato wielder said bowing to her, dark blue undershirt creasing near his waist.

"Yuse." My other friend, the chocolate brown haired chokuto user murmured, bowing as well in his white under shirt.

My friend smiled next to me, "Nice to meet you two. My name's Asuna."

"Its a pleasure to meet you too." The two boys said, bowing.

Seeing a blue haired knight walk in front of all the chatting players, I pressed a brown gloved finger to my lips, before pointing to the man, our heads turning that way as we all sat back down again.

"All right!" The man said, "My name's Diabel, I'll be leading the boss raid against Illfang. Now if you'd all just stop _murmuring_!" He roared, "We can get through the debriefing faster."

"Okay, so to defeat the boss Illfang, we're going to have to consult our Player Guides, that the Beta Testers-"

"Beta testers!?" A voice rang out. A shadow risen above the whole amphitheater. The shadow jumped into the air, before landing on the platform next to Diabel, "Beta testers? They're why we're stuck here!"

I chuckled closing my eyes slightly, making Asuna, Yuse and Aigen look at me with my arms crossed, before I raised an 'okay' hand signal and gave some snark, "Absolutely stellar reasoning there buddy."

The orange haired player kept ranting, "Those guys are the worst! They intentionally wrote it in Klingon!"

"Heh-heh-heh." I chuckled, before taking a sharp shoulder nudge from Asuna to the side, "OW!" I whined, rubbing it.

Diabel cleared his throat, "Having seen enough Star Trek, I believe I can read this well." He said, holding the brown leather covered booklet in front of him, "When meeting a player that likes how the game is designed, he must be sent to the front...chocolate cakes? Sorry, I meant lines, bad translation. When meeting a player that starts ranting on how badly scripted the game is upon entering a conversation, he must be sent to the front lines."

"Sh**." I cursed under my breath, knowing a few of the other Star Trek fans who played the Beta were probably tired of me complaining endlessly about the game.

"When sending Illfang into the red part of his health gauge, every player must find the nearest ledge and-" Diabel snapped the book shut alarmed, "Who the f*** wrote this!?"

I giggled behind my hand, only for Asuna to glare at me. I shrugged, "It was a joke! Damn!"

The blue haired knight sighed, "All right, so the Player Guide...might be one of the reasons thousands died, but I've got a plan. We can form specialized groups. Form teams of four of five, and return to me to be given your assignment."

I turned to my best friend and the ones from Judo, "Okay, we're all set."

"Yup." Yuse and Aigen said, swiping their menus open and sending party requests to us.

I accepted, having formed it in the first place. Asuna looked over at a player, "Hey, that guy's all by himself, shouldn't he join our party?"

"Yeah. I spoke to him last night, and this is what he sounded like." I started, ruffling my hair a little and doing an impression of him, "I have no friends and must walk alone, making me so edgy and cooo..."

As Yuse and Aigen chuckled, Asuna glared at me again, "Not funny Tai, hey! Come on over here!" She hollered.

"Watch out guys, cancer approaches." I whispered to my old friends from Judo, hand over my mouth. I really admired the conversation we had yesterday, but I still liked joking about anything.

As Kirito sat down, I introduced my two friends to him, "Guys, meet Edge-ito, I-I mean Kirito."

I don't why, but I felt like Aigen was going to be a much better friend than this guy. I was making fun of him mostly because, well, it was fun. Plus I was counting down how long it was going to take before Asuna outright smacked me.

After she practically forced me to accept, Kirito joined our party and we all walked down to Diabel.

"Oi." I said calmly, "I've gotta party of five."

"Hm." The knight responded, "I'm thinking Squad A for you guys, just wipe out Sentinels to allow other players to go for the boss."

I leaned my head back, "Ugh! Are seeerious!? Gah!" All it took was for Asuna to stomp on my foot to shut me up.

The girl rolled her eyes again as I jumped up and down clutching my right boot, Yuse and Aigen laughing their heads off.

Diabel sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, seeing this scene, "Why did the hell did I put teenagers on A Squad?..." He clapped his hands together, "All right everybody. Let's march!"

The Englishmen piped up a question, "May we sing something?" Edward asked.

"Sure, whatever your name is!" The blue haired knight said.

..

The Englishmen lead the march to the boss room, we passed players waving, almost as if we were all marching off to war. Edward stood at the very front of the band, whistling a cheery tune with his men before bursting into song, weapons carried over their shoulders. The same songs their great grandfathers used to sing when marching off to war were being sung too.

 **"Its a long way to Tipperary! Its a long way to go! Its a long to Tipperary, to the sweetest girl I know! Goodbye, to Piccadilly! Farewell, Leicester Squaare! It's a long long way to Tipperary, but my heart's right theeere!"**

I whispered to the chocolate brown haired boy to my left, "Aren't their voices perfect?"

Yuse nodded calmly, and they kept singing. I was tempted to bang my spear on my shield and create a sound like a trash can being hit, but couldn't stop falling in love with these men's voices. As this happened, we approached the huge pillar that contained the boss room.

 **"Pack up your troubles in your kit bag and smile smile smile! Why'd you Lucifer'd to light your fang! Smile boys that's the style! Whats the use of worrying, it never was worthwhile! Soo! Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag and smile, smile, smile!"**

 **"Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag and smile! Smile! Smiiile!"** They chanted, weapons sheathed and hands over each others shoulders, leading the marching up the stairs to the boss room.

..

The knight dug the tip of his sword into the ground with a clang, "All right! Here's the boss room! I only have one rule: Do not! Play Bejeweled. I'm looking at you Joe! That's right I see you." He said nodding and pointing, as the short player closed his menu sheepishly.

"Okay lets do this!" I yelled, rushing past him and kicking the stone doors open.

"Hey that's my line!" Diabel complained, "Screw it, lets go!"

Yuse and Aigen drew their straight Japanese blades, jumping into action, as players sprinted towards the roaring red pig demon boss Illfang.

He raised his axe and buckler, roaring loudly as weak ass Sentinels spawned next to him.

"Squad A, wipe out Sentinels!" Diabel yelled.

"Understood!" We shouted in unison.

"Asuna!" I barked, raising my tall curved rectangular shield, "Stay behind me!"

"Pssh!" She scoffed, "Forget that!" Chortling, she sprinted past me hacking through a Sentinel in seconds.

My two old friends from Judo were better than I thought, much better. Slicing through Sentinels, they slashed apart their torsos in seconds, having the speed to blur past a cotton mace wielding mob and already leave a red hack mark on its neck, before being defeated.

Kirito cut down another Sentinel, before I powered up my spear, the blade glowing green before I jumped into a thrust.

The blow was so powerful, that it jutted right through its helmet, blasting it away to glass shards.

"Diabel! Watch out for that huge no-dachi he has stashed behind his back!" I yelled, looking up from a Sentinel whose stomach was occupying the tip of my yari, dying quickly.

"Screw that! I'm going for the bonus!" He yelled, somehow being stupid enough to take on the boss himself.

I looked aside disbelievingly after knocking a Sentinel to a pillar with my shield.

 _There's no saving this guy. Who the hell breaks formation and charges a boss by himself? Someone with no self control that is._

The Kobold Lord roared as I knocked another Sentinel to the ground with a [Shield Bash] and [Downwards Thrusted] its head, the cold steel of my yari entering its helm and blasting it away to polygons.

A player must've seen the bosses health go into the red, and he asked, "Is this where we all have to kill ourselves?"

As Diabel activated his [Yellow] sword skill, Illfang drew his no-dachi as I predicted and began to grow berserk, flying around pillars, before flying down, hitting the ground and making it tremble, before slicing a clean cut across Diabel's chest, and slashing an attack through his body, making the young blue haired man fly into the air. After two direct clean hits, that was it.

After I [Power Slashed] through a Sentinel's helm, ending it, I saw out of the corner of my eye, Kirito was doting over the knight, before he passed into floating glass shards.

Asuna gripped her rapier, before her and Aigen rushed the boss.

The tall and strong ninjato wielder threw his sword about, his spiky black hair whipping, before deflecting multiple pink colored [Power Swipes] from Illfang's no-dachi.

Aigen then took a slash across his chest, knocking him back into Asuna, as I cut down another Sentinel, my yari passing clean across his chest.

I gasped.

Then it happened again, seeing my two friends in danger.

Yuse watched as I growled, my pupils dilating.

"Choke on my [Blood Lust], pig!" I roared, sprinting towards the boss.

He came at me with an arc like hack with his no-dachi, but I had enough knowledge from the Beta I had his attack patterns memorized, easily rolling forwards and slashing him across the stomach to evade it.

I raised my shield over my head, both hands supporting it, crouching slightly on my knees, before I withstood a downwards hack from him, Aigen and Asuna both laying on the ground beneath me, protecting them.

"Haaaaa!" I shrieked in fury over the injury of my two friends.

After deflecting another shot from Illfang with my huge shield, I came out with a green glowing [Quick Slash], dragging the tip of my yari across his chest in an upwards line, sending his health dropping from its already incredibly low level.

Kirito and I were both Beta testers, so we both knew the benefits of last hitting the boss, a mighty terrible design decision on Kayaba's part, but nonetheless, we struck one after the other.

After running up to my side, I grew enraged, yelling loudly as we cut down the boss side by side, slashing through the red colored boss while sprinting around him.

It was a competition with this guy, who could land the most attack skills on him.

A [Thrust] and then a [Slash] from me, my su yari glowing a dark shade of green, my rage ability making the attacks deal more damage.

The black haired boy I made fun of slashed through the boss as well, with a blue colored broadsword.

Finally, after cutting through his body enough, we lowered his health to the point where one last strike should kill him. I managed to land the final hit on him, my spear entering his pig like skin with a final thrust at his thigh, the boss shrieking loudly before collapsing onto his right knee and exploding into a shower of blue dust.

Everyone became silent, before only one sound was emitted from my mouth, a long groan before I passed out from the sapping of my MP, "Huh..."

..

Every player stood over me, as the boss room had powered down, worried.

Asuna looked at me, Yuse, Aigen and Kirito behind her, "You okay Yama?"

I groaned, still laying on the ground, my shield and spear laying at my left and right sides respectively, same with my sprawled out hands, "Ugh..." I groaned, swallowing as my MP refilled quickly upon my awakening, "How long was I out for?"

"Longer than last time." She said simply with crossed arms, "A decent...fifteen or twenty minutes."

"Fifteen minutes?" I barked, shocked. I gasped, seeing my brown gloved hand crinkle into a fist.

 _No. It can't be! The more powerful and efficient the [Blood Lust] trait becomes, the more time it takes for me to recover from it!_

An axe wielding American by the name of..Tiffany was it? Complimented the teenage player standing, "Good job Kirito! We defeated the boss because of your last attacks, Illfang looked mighty tough with that no-dachi."

All the players applauded him, until I noticed my inventory was updated.

 **New Item: Coat of Midnight**

After swiping open my menu, I groaned and complained, "Ergh! Black? That's the dumbest color, why isn't it green? Screw it, here." I said, taking off the coat and offering it to Kirito, "Sorry for making fun of you behind your back, I really think tha-"

"Stop cheering!" The angry orange haired player from earlier yelled, ending the happy applause the boss room was giving us, "Why in the hell would you let Diabel die?"

I raised an eyebrow and gave some snark, "I warned him about the nodachi, because apparently I was the only person noticing Illfang had it. He died out of his own will, the guys an idiot."

"What'd you say?" He asked angrily, gripping his sword strapped to his back.

"Kibaou don't." A middle aged player warned, pressing a hand to the man's chest.

The orange haired man named Kibauo kept ranting, pointing at Kirito and I, "You two knew the attacks he used!" He said standing, "So what if you warned him? You could've protected him with that huge shield of yours!"

I gripped the bridge of my nose whispering and the players muttered nervously about us, "Its like talking to sheep..."

"I know why they did it! They're both Beta testers! They both knew the bosses attack patterns!" Another player yelled.

"They cheated! To get the EXP bonus for their party! They landed the last hits! They're beta testers and cheaters! They're both beaters!" A dark brown haired player said, pointing at us.

Firecrackers went off in my head the second that was spoken, like a spark.

The singing knights began to sing as I rolled on the ground laughing, they sung another of their native English tunes, The Laughing Policeman.

I slapped my knee, laughing my head off, even Kirito looked at me funny.

As I wiped a happy tear from my face, I smiled while laughing.

 _God, I am going to rhetorically own these noobs with the best logos ever. Forget that berserk crap bro._

The boss room looked at me as I died laughing, "Wohoooo! Haaaahahaaaa!" I cried, hitting the ground my fists.

I kept rolling around on the ground, dying, "No! No!" I cried laughing, "Yo-You can't hooo!" I cried laughing, I couldn't stop, how could anyone, adults of all people, actually act so stupid?

"T-Taiyama, whats so funny?" My best friend asked, seeing me die.

"Hoooo! Ahahahah! Ohhhh my gooood!" I cried, clutching my stomach and dying, "You can't be serious. You can't be!" I cried, as the players looked at each other.

I felt my jaw crack from my sadistic laughter, my chuckles echoing in the chamber from their immense noise, "Oh my god!"

My body writhed in agony, my sides hurting and my ribs cracking from my amazingly powerful laughter, my head bouncing endlessly as I chuckled non stop, my mouth opened wide as I couldn't stop laughing. I stood up slowly, laughing as I leaned on my knees, dying.

I started smacking my knee so hard it echoed across the walls of the deactivated boss room, "Okay! Okay." I started, wiping the incredible number of jolly tears of laughter from my eyes, "Okay." I said, trying to control my self.

Clearing my throat, I took an elegant tone, resting my head atop my hand, before speaking, "You are single handedly making this game harder to beat man. Wouldn't you want powerful players like Kirito to be with you all? Helping? Keeping people alive? What was that thing you called me?"

"A beate-" Kibaou started, before I cut him off.

"Stop!" I shrieked, "You'll kill me! You'll kill me!... As that!" I cried, trying not to laugh at how dumb it was while smiling, "But you'll all be making the game harder to beat. You know what? Screw it." I yelled throwing my new [Coat of Midnight] into the air and cutting it directly in half with my yari, the blade glowing green and whirring loudly.

After destroying it, I smiled, "See? The attack item means nothing to me, we're all equals or whatever, there. Look, all I'm saying is, branding people as...that, will only make everything worse for everyone. This game is literally built around co-operation. Winning parties in boss raids get Exp bonuses. Cooking groups yield higher Col to sell to mobs. You're ruining the main function of the game, its also hypocritical and logically inept to brand Kirito and I for the loss of life by causing more players to die when we're not in parties because you isolated us all."

I sighed deeply after that, "I mean we could've helped, but we shouldn't be punished if Diabel was making it hard to do so."

The players muttered to themselves, before I pointed at the mentally inept Kibaou, "If anything, you're the villain, you're blaming Kirito and I for something out of our control? So what if I could've protected Diabel like I did Asuna and Aigen? So what if Kirito could've shoved his potion down his throat? He simply did not want to live. You're all actually killing people by not letting decent players such as myself, and powerful players such as Kirito help them."

A brown haired player scratched his head and looked at me, "Wait so...we're wrong for isolating you?"

"Yes." I said calmly, rubbing the side of my head covered in dark brown locks, "Think about it. If your intention is to isolate us socially from other players because we failed to preserve lives, then by doing so, you're also failing to preserve more lives? I mean, your odds of survival will increase with Kirito on your team right?"

He cleared his throat, "True that, I'm a beast and I'm proud."

I decided to drop the logical mic on them, "Or. Isolate us all and find your own way, your choice. Its all your decision if you wish to call us that. Just sit on that for a little bit, you all know the consequences. Come on A Squad, we have a tree to claim." I said picking up my shield and walking towards the edge of the boss room, leaving them to consider this for themselves.

Yuse walked up to me and nodded, "All's well ain't it?"

I swelled with pride, my chest rising, "Wow. I really did do good today. Saved my two friends lives, and ended idiocy and hypocrisy in this wretched player base. Unless they choose to be ignorant." I muttered, walking up the steps out of the bathroom. I thought about something.

 _It really felt nice to be calm and collected like that. I guess all that boxing training went for something. Hmm, maybe I'll keep this._

..

We all breathed in deeply, before Yuse smirked to my left, the chocolate brown haired and eyed boy resting a right hand resting on the pommel of his chokuto, before saying in a tone of relief, "Floor Two."

I began to walk quickly out of the boss rooms steps, entering the floor, my boots passing through the green grass quickly, seeing another large tree flow upwards towards the sky atop a large hill. I pushed my hand against its trunk, a notification appearing in front of my menu.

 **New Safe Point Tree claimed, will you accept this as your new group point?**

 **[Yes] [No** **]**

"Wait." Aigen said, his ninjato tied tightly to his right hip, "What did you just do?"

"Didn't you know?" I asked, "Kayaba was kind enough to include these Tree Points in the wilds, any party, except for parties with red players in them, that claims an area has a new safe point. No mobs or players can attack you or spawn in a twenty meter radius upon the claiming." I explained, my knowledge of the Beta bubbling as I hit [Yes].

Asuna smiled, "Cool thing too, no players outside of our party can enter it either, Tai here was kind enough to let me know that when convincing me to start chilling out here in the wilds. Basically, if you're hostile or not one of us, you can't enter."

After the hill became ours, the long lush emerald fields of Aincrad rolling about, the tips of blades of grass being flicked by wind, we set up camp. Unrolling our sleeping bags at the base of the huge newly claimed tree, I saw the virtual sun go down far in the green sunset. Then night fell.

We all sat around a campfire, on the newly unlocked second floor, as Yuse and Asuna shared stories with Kirito, the three teens sitting on sleeping bags and chatting, I looked over a lake, Aincrad's moon glowing on it.

Aigen walked up to me, "That was quite a speech you gave man."

I kept sitting on the log under the tree seeing the stars and moon glow on Aincrad. I smiled, looking at him, "Thank you, why don't you take a seat next to me."

"Sure." The spiky black haired boy said, placing his hands beneath his black trouser covered thighs and sitting on the space on the log I offered.

"Tai, why'd you defend Kirito?"

"You mean why'd I defend myself?"

"Oh." Aigen muttered, before a leaf fell into my lap. I had an idea, picking up a leaf on the ground and blowing on it softly, pressing it to my lips, making a light kazoo like sound.

"Can you teach me how to do that?" He asked curiously.

"Its simple," I explained passing him the leaf that fell into my brown trousered lap, "You must blow on it softly, as if you're blowing out a candle."

The ninjato user was terrible at it, making me chuckle at him, seeing Aigen fail miserably, and make a small muffling sound against it.

I stood up, shield on the ground dismissing the leaf blowing exercise entirely, "If you're curious as to why this...feral side of me was unleashed today. It was because I saw you and Asuna in trouble, I'd do anything to keep you guys safe."

Aigen nodded, "Thanks Yama."

"I could die happily, knowing I'd saved your life." I said, standing up while holding my spear over my shoulder, "But I removed my [Blood Lust] trait from my skill Que."

"But...why?"

"Because I'm done with all this anger business. Plus, the skill progression sucked, seriously, why would you be punished like that for using the trait more?"

The boy nodded at me, "I agree. So, why do you act so logical and mystified all of a sudden?"

"Hff." I huffed, smiling, "I don't know where this altruistic wisdom comes from, whether it be from reading too many mangas or seeing to many internet memes, but I understand that that feeling I had upon teaching the player base how to act like logical people felt nice. But still, I do have this...savage side to me that wants to keep you and Asuna safe, and that might be..."

"Animalistic?

"Right." I affirmed, "Animalistic. But still, I comprehend it as deeper than that. But that purpose is to win things that are precious as well as protect them. Not stupid items like that badly colored Coat of Midnight. Seriously, black is so edgy, bleh." I said, sticking my tongue out, "But something that isn't materialistic, something much more...real. Something...logical."

Aigen kept looking at me, thinking blankly.

Still keeping an internet and RPG enthusiast fist planted fist over my heart, I felt it beat as I kept speaking, "However, for a warrior such as I, there must be something beyond something even more precious than keeping logic persistent in this toxic player base. As though there must be a balance between logical and emotional."

"Something more precious?" He asked, raising a thin jet black eyebrow.

"And that is a dream. Anyone can be hurt, killed or maimed by their dream."

"A dream." Aigen said calmly, continuing to look at me, "And what is your dream?" He asked curtly.

"A land of logic. A place that is unlike Aincrad or SAO in every way, where people don't start thinking LMAO is a french term. Or where pasty basement dwellers rule every aspect of its badly designed confines. Any place, that isn't an MMO. Any place, that isn't here. Were it not for those voices I heard earlier today, I'd have not even one reason for staying in this black hole of intellectualism. Aside from protecting my friends. But I fight to preserve the spirit of humanity, Asuna. And you, why do you fight?"

The spiky black haired teen removed his ninjato, the long straight blade extending outward from his grasp at his chest, "I fight...for breasts."

I snorted, "Wait, are you serious?"

"No I'm not serious damn." He said, rolling his blue-ish black eyes, "I fight because I want to live. No other reason beyond that. There should be no ulterior motive to that instinct to fight to survive, logical or not."

"Hm. Breasts would've been more interesting." I admitted.

"It would've been stupid." Aigen corrected, "Honestly man, its like everything you is dumb."

"Yeah. I do sound really stupid." I admitted, looking down at my boots.

Aigen looked at the three teens chatting behind him, sitting around the campfire, laughing at a joke Yuse made, before speaking in his deep voice, "I think its inspiring, to have this 'wise' side to you, I'm sure that your friends back there follow you because of that. Along with everyone else in SAO, your sarcasm draws people to you somehow."

I look to the side, avoiding his eyes slightly, "Yuse and Asuna are both good friends. I don't know about Kirito however, black is so dumb. I never thought I'd see you again after leaving our after school Judo club. But seeing the young men you two have become...makes a Stand by Me fan proud."

He sighed, "Can you stop with the movie references please, we've only been in the same party for like a couple hours and its already exhausting."

Chuckling, I looked at him, "Do you want to go back with the others?"

"Why not?" He asked rhetorically.

I'd like to have stood there, thinking about what classic movies and mangas taught me, along with all of my nerd-doms, but then I returned to my friends, probably to discuss more on our lives, leaving open holes for me to poke, and probably some more movie references and snark for me to toss out.

The moon glowed a strange shade of yellow that night, the reason for which only true RPG fans like me knew why.

Because Kayaba had absolutely no idea how to design games.

...


	4. Chapter 4: Aigen's Mind

Chapter Four: Aigen's Mind.

* * *

 _(SAO, doth thou understand it is not in my possession?)_

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **"Five warriors. Five weapons. Five teenagers with attitudes. They are, the Sword Rangers."**

(Awesome guitar Riff intro played by the Singing Knights, Edward's blonde hair whipping as he played his electric guitar quickly before singing into his microphone with his knights.)

 **"Theyyy've got, a power and a force that you've never seen before! Theyy've got, the ability to use their awesooome swords. And spears...**

 **Nooo one, can ever take them down! The power lies on their si-ie-ieieeede.**

 **Go go Sword Rangers! Go go Sword Rangers! Go go Sword Rangers, you mighty wielding Sword Rangers!**

 **Theyy know the fate of Aincrad is lying in their hands. Theyyy know, to only use their weapons foooor defense... Except to kill mobs!...** (Added quickly)

 **Noooo oone will ever take them down, the power lies on their si-ieied-iiede.**

 **Go go Sword Rangers! Go go Sword Rangers! Go go Sword Rangers, you mighty wielding Sword Rangeeeehrs!"**

(Metal Guitar keeps riffing as the Narrator runs down list of names)

 **"Starring, as the leader, the cynic with a heart of gold, the Green Ranger Taisuke Ishoyama, as Taiyama."**

Taiyama stood in a small circle, lightning glimmering off the black orb his upper body was in, "Uh guys...this intro sucks." He said, looking off to the side.

"Shut up Taiyama!" Everyone yelled.

"Sheesh." He exclaimed, "Uh..." He extended his right fist outwards, "Count on my shield!" The boy said halfheartedly, "Jeez, who writes this crap?"

 **"Gakuo Rin as Aigen, the Blue Ranger!"**

The tall spiky jet black haired boy smiled at the camera with crossed arms, "My ninjato's yours?" He asked with a raised eyebrow, "Is that the right line? Guys? Guys?"

The screen fizzled, and the Narrator kept speaking, **"Also starring, Asuna Yuuki, as Asuna, the Yellow Ranger!"**

She smiled, extending her fist to the screen, "Stay happy!" The girl sparked up all smiley, her other hand giving a thumbs up.

"Your line work sucks!" He said, giving his signature critique.

"Taiyamaaa!" She shrieked fuming, before walking off the intro circle angrily and allowing punches to be heard off screen, clearly hitting him.

The screen fizzled again and Kirito took the intro circle, lightning still glinting off the side of the screen.

 **"Kazuto Kirigaya, as the Edge Ranger, Kirito. Heh-heh, just kidding, the Black Ranger!"**

"I won't let you down!" He said instantly.

 **"And finally, the Red Ranger, Aki Kuroudai, Yuse!"**

"Honor is my true blade." He said coldly, "Or jokes. Just as sharp." He said winking.

 **"These five will do anything to protect Aincrad and her people."** The Narrator said, as the five teens stood in a line.

"Unless it involves bad game design!" Taiyama piped up, raising a finger.

 **"Unless it involves bad game design. These are, the Sword Rangers."**

(End of Intro)

 **FailtasticBelt** : (Munches on popcorn loudly) Hah! Bet it'll take nine seasons for Taiyama to finally git gud. Mm, that nerfed protagonist makes me proud. Wait...so I guess Kanoi's Rita Repulsa? And shouldn't Lisbeth be the pink ranger? Mf, whatever.

 **Neph Champion** : (Fingers pushing on lips, thinking) Mm. Needs more Kirisuna. And better scene flow.

 **SquidHater3000** : Can the other Rangers have love interests? More romcom stuff pleasssse.

 **NGJLiang** : Cool story bro.

 **Striderm8** : Sorry, I was playing Call of Duty, what'd I miss?

 **Den3424** (Me): Hey fun fact guys, did you know Strider has a Youtube Channel? Honestly, the guy's amazing at beat boxing. Go sub to him!

 _(Anyway...on to the chapter!)_

...

POV: TAIYAMA.

..

 _Floor 2_

..

Yuse dug the tip of his chokuto deeply into the head of the tiny rabbit, the mob flying away to pieces instantly. He smiled, "That Exp though...mm..."

I looked at him, as Kirito started walking up to me, "Dammit, I wanted that one!" I complained.

"Just find another one, there's loads around here." The black haired player said, "I got two on the way over here."

Palming the wood of my spear, I took off my su yari strapped to my back, "Ok. I'm gonna go for it!"

Breaking into a sprint, I saw a white bunny rabbit of my own to end, and I ran after it, spear extended to kill it.

It ran into the forest river, and I froze, looking away.

A girl was bathing there.

I refused to look, turning my head away with my eyes closed, and hearing my three friends, Aigen, Kirito and Yuse approach from behind me, their boots crunching the leaves beneath their feet.

"Whoa..." Yuse said gasping.

Kirito looked away too, and Aigen just stood there dumbfounded after whistling lightly and quietly.

I opened my eyes for a second, only to gasp.

That black hair. That single braid over her left shoulder. It was a tiny detail from our fight, but I remembered nonetheless.

 _This was Kanoi._

"Guys...we need to leave." I warned.

"Why?...She's so hot..." The chocolate brown haired red loving chokuto user said drooling.

"Dude. I'll explain later. We need to leave. Now." I persisted, speaking through tensely gritted teeth.

Kirito nodded, arm over his eyes, "Yeah. Tai's right, we should leave."

Stepping backwards carefully, the boy broke a twig over his boot, a loud snapping sound erupting.

Kanoi snapped her head to us, her jet black hair tied up and resting just above her shoulders.

We all turned around and ran out of the forest.

..

..

Wearing nothing more than her clean white dress, the girl shrieked, running after us, her English long sword still extended from her hip, "Perveerrts!" She yelled.

Seeing us run by, the Singing Knights burst into a chorus of Ray Charles' Mess Around, "Run boyyys!" Edward yelled before singing.

We all panted, the four of us. I didn't blame Yuse and Aigen for not looking away, they both had no idea who Kanoi was. But there she was, waiting to kill us, sprinting, the same boots she had used to almost kick me to death hitting the stone ground of the road quickly.

Kanoi kept gripping her sword, sprinting towards us, "I'll kill you all!"

We kept running ahead of her, and Kirito panted out, "Oh god. Oh god, we're actually going to die."

Carrying my massive shield was a pain, but with my life in danger, whoo boy, was I running fast.

"Kanoi!" I yelled, still running, "I know you're pissed, but I wasn't looking!"

"I'll kill you first!" She shrieked.

Panting, Yuse picked up the pace, as the girl drew nearer.

We saw the tree, Asuna standing up from the camp fire that was put out, our sleeping bags still in a circle around it.

Falling over from running the enormous distance from the forest, all four of us hit the ground exhausted.

She tried to enter our camp and probably cut all of us in half, but the Safe Point kept her at bay, as she wasn't part of our party, an invisible wax like force field was being smacked as she tried to push through it, grunting loudly in anger.

"Kanoi?" Asuna asked in alarm, a slight twinge of anger in her voice upon seeing her, "What are you doing here?" She asked in surprise, crossing her arms, hand nearing the hilt of her rapier.

"Those perverts were spying on me!" She roared, pointing at the four of us exhausted on the ground from the running.

"You serious?" She asked, turning her head to me.

"H-Hey." I said panting like everyone else, "I didn't look." I exasperated, raising a hand in defense, "They did."

"I didn't look!" Kirito cried, his voice squeaking in surprise.

Yuse and Aigen said nothing.

Asuna tapped her foot impatiently, "Apologize guys."

"What? She's the crazy girl who tried to kill us!" The spiky black haired teen cried.

"Aigen's right, she tried to kill us!" Yuse said in agreement, still panting.

"But you spied on her. It may be extreme but she is coming from somewhere."

"A-all right." The brown haired player said standing, "I'm sorry."

"Me... too." Aigen said standing up as well, panting.

"Ohohoho! That's not enough." Kanoi responded, smiling lividly and walking across the stone path to another hill. She sat atop it, sword laying atop her legs.

"What are you doing?" My chestnut haired friend asked.

"Goddammit." I grunted, "She's waiting to kill us." I turned my head to her, stopping my incessant panting after swallowing, "I bet you she has the patience to wait us out."

The cat like greened eyed girl sat there, staring at us, not saying a word.

..

POV: AIGEN

..

Hours. Hours. That's how long it took for me to wear my patience short.

I wanted to go across the path and apologize to her, but she'd probably cut me down for it. What a freaking psycho. Over her shoulder lay a small bluff, or cliff, leading downwards rockily.

The sun began to go down, and I poked the growing fire with a stick, looking at Taiyama sit across from me, cross legged on his sleeping bag. I didn't hate the guy, but why'd he have to act so freaking judgmental all the time? With this new logic driven mindset of his, it was wearing me down, pointing out every tiny flaw in my blade technique, or referencing some section of the internet I had not yet discovered.

What was more frustrating was the fact that I couldn't find things wrong with his own spear technique, the guy was amazing, I had to admit that.

He kept calling me an animal, because I wiped out a clearing full of mobs without second thought, my new trait [Rage Push] was activated for the first time there in the forest.

Asuna called him a hypocrite right after this, but he responded by saying how, 'He was moving past such savagery.' What a pompous jack ass.

It was similar to how I had seen Yama's recently deleted [Blood Lust] trait had worked in the first boss room, the only difference was it was actually balanced. My defense became absolute garbage upon its use, in exchange for a decent speed and strength buffs.

I spoke to him, "Hey. Wouldn't it be cool of me to carry around a huge sword? Like a really big one?"

He scoffed, high and mighty as usual, "You wish your strength stat was that maxed out. Nah bro."

Taiyama was messing with his necklace around his neck, a silver chain with a ruby for a pendant, before pressing it, the trait activating as he saw Kanoi still sitting there calmly, looking at us as the sun went down over her shoulder.

I don't know why he was doing it now. Wait, was he going to challenge her?

"Its nice huh?" The dark brown haired spear user asked, smiling and closing his eyes at me, raising the pendant with a brown gloved hand, a red glow around him from the trait being activated, his defense going up with his speed probably going down.

Never would I ever think another man was attractive, but I had to confess he was trying to look cute. Did it work?

"No." I said calmly, "You're not fighting her. I'm tired of you playing noble, and this is my battle."

I stood up from my sleeping bag, each finger on my right hand wrapping around the handle of my ninjato, gripping it, and then I took it out from its scabbard on my back, the straight blade ringing in the air.

"Aigen wait!" Yuse shouted, before I leaped into the air, my feet landing on the cobble stone path of the trail.

I pointed my ninjato at her, "No more of this sitting around business."

"Mm." She said, licking her lips, "Its been a while since I've had a good fight. Maybe I'll have my fun with you like I did with pretty boy over there." Her light green eyes flicking to Tai, her cat like pupils dilating happily.

She picked up her English long sword with a silver square pommel, raising it with as did I, "After killing you, I'll make sure to finish off your friends."

"Shut your mouth bitch." I grunted out, gripping my ninjato's hilt, I pointed to my friends on the hill, speaking to them as I still made eye contact with Kanoi, "Don't move guys! This is between me, and her!"

Asuna, Yuse, Taiyama, and Kirito all watched as I kept staring at her.

The second I saw her foot twist, I sprinted at her, moving in a spiky haired blur, my [Rage Push] trait fueling my anger along with my adrenaline.

I grunted out loudly, swiping at her with a powerful slash, the blade making a loud whooshing sound in the air.

Kanoi smirked, seeing this coming and deflecting it, before coming at me with a sudden hack.

I threw my sword about, blocking it and coming out with a thrust at her stomach.

The girl knocked it aside and tried to knock me with a base ball like swing at my shoulder with the flat part of her blade, still transitioning from her parry.

I dove under it and rolled forwards, the blade flying over me and rolling, before I tried to cut her legs off.

Kanoi had the speed and reflexes to jump and avoid this while coming out of a thrust.

Taiyama shouted something probably to facilitate his logical attitude and my angry one, "That roll sucked!"

Angrier, I stood up and started slashing at her with all I had, whisking noises being made as I swung and swung.

Every strike was blocked, Kanoi moving her sword about to block the attacks, the sun still going down as we fought.

Grunting and yelling in anger, I jumped up spinning and activated a three hit combo, [Triple Slash], my ninjato glowing a dark shade of blue, before three huge cobalt arcs flew towards Kanoi's body.

She must've been a Beta tester, because she recognized the pattern of my attacks and evaded them easily, predicting them so well she dashed under my swinging arm and punched me right in the stomach with a right fist.

Damn she was strong, making me wheeze, before making me grow even angrier and becoming a tornado of attacks, flying towards her.

Dozens of silver colored lines flew towards her, the girl rolling, dodging or blocking every single one of them, as I pivoted and twisted, putting everything into my attacks.

The reason why I loved my ninjato, was because the blade was so fast, it looked like my sword blurred as I struck.

"Its like watching two titans clash..." I could've sworn Yuse whisper, as I stepped back to block a sudden slash from Kanoi.

I stopped the blade in its tracks, but a small part of her blade cut into the dark blue undershirt of my arm.

Grunting loudly, we sent swipes at each other at the exact second.

Our blades met, her English longsword and my Japanese ninjato, a loud scraping sound being made.

We pushed against each other, strength becoming vital. From the incredibly loud sound being emitted, we were both very well disciplined in this matter, the blades scraping together.

I grunted, growling loudly and pushing our swords together, the both of us wishing to push each other away.

My [Rage Push] ability chose the perfect moment to wear off, and I began to fall slowly to the ground, my strength waning.

She must've been really powerful if the second it went away, Kanoi managed to push me to the ground like a rag doll.

The girl disarmed me, knocking my ninjato away to the bluffs with an incredibly strong hit, the blade spinning towards the darkness.

As my four friends rested their hands on their weapons, Kanoi instantly picked me up and rested her longsword under my chin, "Ah, ah, ah. Move and I'll cut his throat."

They stopped, grunting, before Kanoi purred, running her hands through my spiky black hair, "Mm. Have you ever gone down a cliff?"

My friends wanted to move, but the sword under my chin stopped them.

Before anyone could react, she tossed me off the bluff over the hill, throwing me like a football.

"AIGEN!" I heard my party members shout, as I tumbled down the cliff.

..

..

I awoke, apparently I was still alive. My health seriously waned. Luckily, I had sustained little damage from the duel with Kanoi, but the tumble down the bluff hurt. Badly. Really, really badly.

There was no pain absorber in this game, so I groaned, throwing my head back and feeling pain reverberate through my body.

I was in the middle of a small dried lake, rocks about along with old wooden boats, continuing to groan in pain. Turning my head around, I looked for my ninjato, seeing my beloved blade lay on the ground not too far off.

Standing up slowly, my health refilling while doing so, I began to limp towards it.

As I picked it up by its hilt, I saw yellow orbs glow about in the darkness, the moon becoming all that provided light for me.

The wolves growled, looking at me.

As one leaped towards my throat, I activated my [Rage Push] ability, before shrieking loudly in anger, howling for blood.

My fury was so great, it made me numb to the point where I saw nothing but kill-able moving things around me, shapes of mass. The blue-ish black sea that was my irises became vastly smaller, my pupils dilating heavily as I concentrated, before sending my ninjato in an upwards cut, slaying the wolf before it blew away to glass pieces.

Polygons began to fill the air, one mob digging its fangs into my calf. I growled loudly in pain, before shoving the tip of my sword right through its head.

Pivoting my entire body into the slash, I cut down two wolves while yelling loudly, a straight red line following a silver line that was my blade.

They whimpered before passing, and I began to run about, cutting down wolves without thought. I felt my muscles scrounge up in anger, my right calf failing to let me walk, so I had to pivot about leaning on my left knee, grunting and yelling, my mouth open in a roar, my canines appearing to be fangs as I growled somewhat like a tiger could.

"Rrrrraaa!" I shrieked, shoving my sword violently into the throat of a wolf, who tried to bite my arm, catching it and killing it in mid air.

There were only two left, both of which leaped into the air and tried to kill me from opposite sides.

I hunched downwards, letting them collide into each other above me.

Before they fell on top of me, I was fast enough to cut upwards in a dark blue colored slash, slicing one in the stomach quickly, before the other flew past him, soaring past the glass polygons of his departed friend.

I timed my attack incorrectly, my fury becoming so great I swung my sword and the wolf had lunged afterwards, apparently he had hunched backwards onto his grey paws moments before and lunged towards my throat.

I moved my hand to protect it, and he bit down on my left hand.

After shrieking in pain, I dropped my ninjato as the wolf overpowered me, trying to snap his jaws into my throat. I raised a left arm over it, the mob was so large it was about my size.

I shrieked in pain, but then growled in further anger. On my back, I began to punch the wolf in the eye with all I had.

"Raa! Raa! Raaaa!" I shrieked in fury, punching it with all I had. On the fourth punch, I knocked it free of my arm, my health almost at zero.

After I knocked it free, I jumped up and tackled it, wrestling the wolf.

It growled and tried to bite me, but I was about its size, and fought it. I gripped one of its paws, and broke its front right leg, making the mob whimper in pain against my massively furious strength.

It howled in pain as I stood up, panting and wheezing, before I kicked it in the nose, breaking its face from my immense rage, yelling loudly.

The wolf passed after this, smashing away to clear polygons after I kicked its eye furiously, my boot passing through it.

I then collapsed onto the ground, panting, my MP exhausted, my health points at 3/1900, as was common for most Level 16 Players.

Pain assailed my senses, making me groan as my health and strength re-generated slowly.

I stared up at the stars.

A small sense of existentialism grew in my mind, looking up at the stars of Aincrad from the center of the dried lake, as if though every star was a player the game had killed, and their souls were staring down at me.

Taiyama had this swaggering sense of nobility about him, believing he was preserving the light of humanity or whatever by protecting Asuna.

I shook my head, looking up at the stars without end, sprawled out, exhausted, beaten, and almost dead.

Perhaps I didn't understand his over intellectualized logic.

Perhaps I was a simpler person.

But, he was still my friend, and I respected his decision to be the way he was. Even if I liked it or not. If I could fight.

There was no nobility in fighting. The single instinct which kept me alive, which kept me fighting, which was every human's purpose, was to survive. That basic desire fueled my rage, and I often wondered if this was my purpose for fighting.

Because I could. Because I liked it. Because I...needed to do it.

This wasn't wisdom. This wasn't the snarky meme filled fire of existential thought abundant logic, that was the fire I admired yet grew apathetic of: Taiyama.

It was just...stars I guess.

That's why I played SAO. That's probably why Kirito liked it too. Why all players probably liked it too when you broke it down. This tiny purpose I wore proudly on my chest. To fight because I knew nothing else, because I didn't want to die.

This feeling of safety given when you enter a world where nothing matters, must be the greatest liberation for anyone who is disgusted with the outside world. But to kill, to annihilate without meaning, other than to survive...that was the most basic of my desires I believe. Something I...breathed and lived, something I loved.

But I used it to become that animal that Yama hypocritically despises, that...beast.

I had screamed several times from the ensuing pain the wolves inflicted on me.

My friends were probably looking for me, wandering about the dried lake wanting to find me.

I hope they never did.

Because staring up at those stars, thinking about...anything...was the greatest feeling for my mind. Fury, pain, and a deep understanding of my purpose, these all were what I felt in only a few short hours.

My mind was becoming like this estranged fate, sinking deeper into what was instinct. What was primordial. A spinning chasm, a vortex, an infinite downwards spiral. Perhaps Tai envisioned it, or dreamed it while contemplating its logically complex breadth, while I...went down it, walking.

I didn't smile at the stars. No matter how much they allowed me to become sunken into them and think.

I had no reason to smile, I was in pain groaning as the wolf bites still remained on my skin.

Where would I go? Would my friends find me?

My groaning continued, as I kept looking up at the stars while doing so.

It didn't matter. Nothing mattered. Even if I never left this endlessly wide dried lake, I would be willing to travel it forever. Fighting, destroying, becoming stronger. I would fight, for as long as I could, because that was my purpose.

Not for anyone else, not for any ulterior motive.

For myself.

...

...

A/N: _Thanks for reading guys, Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year!_


	5. Chapter 5: The Dream Grows

Chapter Five: The Dream Grows

..

..

 _Author's Note: So Neph Champion made a great point. That reading in first person is a pain. 100% of the story so far has been in first person, but it shall now be in third! Because its easier to read, and I don't want to make you guys strain to read things. I might go back and re write everything in third person, but from now on, this shall be in third person._

 _In case you are wondering, these: (...) indicate the end of a scene, sorry if I didn't make that clear._

 _Enjoy!_

 _SAO is Kawahara's property by the way..._

* * *

..

..

The four of them just stood in there in utter shock, watching as Kanoi threw their friend off a cliff before running away, still standing atop their hill, the sun replaced by the moon in the black sky.

They all reached for him, yelling, "Aigen!"

Seeing his body hurled into the night, the four teens looked at each other.

Yuse ran to the chest laying against the safe point tree. He opened it and took out his bow, tossing it over his shoulder along with a quiver full of white feathered arrows.

"Whoa you had a bow?"

"There's a lot you don't know about me Yama." The chocolate haired boy said, standing up, his red undershirt following him with his Level One leather jerkin as he ran to the cliffside, his friends following him.

"Wait!" Asuna said, standing in between him and the edge of the cliff, "I know you want to help him, but it's not worth it!"

"Aigen is somewhere out there, probably dead, or dying because of a mistake I made. Hell no, there's no way I'm letting him die because of me!"

"Mistake you made?" Kirito asked, crossing his arms, his one handed sword still hung from his back, "That was my mistake. I was the one who broke the twig that got her attention. It's my fault he's probably going to die."

Asuna looked like he was going to say something, opening her mouth, only for Yuse to interrupt her, "While we stand here debating whether we should go or not, there's a guy probably being eaten alive by wolves out there in that dried lake basin! We have to save him!"

They kept arguing, yelling over each other to save him or not but Tai just hit his spear onto his huge metal shield to make a loud banging noise, as if a trash can was being kicked, "All right enough! Here's what's logical. There's four of us, one of Aigen. That lake basin is crawling with wolves at night. While it may seem like he's going to die, there's a very small chance we can find him. If we bring a torch we're screwed, that lake's pitch black and we'll be bringing wolves to us like moths to a flame. Don't bring a torch we're screwed anyway, you can't see a thing out there, there's only moonlight. You could make the argument we could fight them off, but wolves will be spawning randomly and jumping at us out of literally nowhere we can anticipate, it'll be like walking into a massive pitch black bears den covered in honey!"

"So we just let him die." Yuse said calmly.

"Let's vote." Tai stated, being the leader of the group and having originally made the party, "Those who vote we stay, raise their hands."

Him and his chestnut haired best friend raised their hands.

"Those who don't?"

Yuse and Kirito raised their hands.

Tai sighed, "Great. Two against two. If Aigen were here he'd split the tie, but he isn't. Although he'd logically vote we'd risk our lives to save him. And you two cannot handle the lake basin at this hour. Go if you'd like, but I'm not risking my life for him. We'll wait until morning and then get him."

"So we're letting him die." Yuse repeated, blinking.

"Well, we can't find him." Tai went all logical and calm again, "He couldn't have gone far from where he landed from Kanoi's throw. He has one hundred and eight degrees," He said, raising a green undershirted arm over the hill, indicating a half circle, "Of choice to wander from. He has way too many directions to move from, we can't find him like this."

Yuse gritted his teeth, muttering to himself as he stormed past the green loving boy.

He sighed, walking back up the hill from the cliffside to the camp.

..

..

As he slept, Asuna sat atop the wooden chest Yuse had drawn his bow from, the teen sleeping across Taiyama in his own sleeping bag.

Sighing, the girl leaned back, resting against the tall tree. The tree was at the very top of the hill, where a small circular clearing existed, the huge tree at the top of the circle, in the center of which was the fire, and surrounding it were the sleeping bags.

"Your friend seems like an asshole." Kirito mumbled, before sitting next to her on the chest, staring at the fire.

"My friend is an asshole." She corrected, "Ki, you really have to start getting along with him better."

"Why?" The black haired player asked.

"Because it's detrimental to the group."

"You stood against me when we voted."

"I had to. Tai would judge me, and I didn't want that." Her gaze turned from the boy sitting on the chest next to her, to the one sleeping around next to the crackling fire, "He may be...unbearably sneering and... a total jack ass, but he's the only friend I have. We grew up together, and I have to stand by him."

Kirito nodded, "Taiyama is one of the most... intriguing people I've met, when I spoke to him, he told me about how he wanted to grow up like a princess. Princess Eron, who ever that is. Maybe he's so obsessed with preserving that image, he pushes people away naturally. Like a raging fire, a bonfire...of logical cynicism...that is Taiyama. Burning everything like the annoying fire he is."

She looked at him slowly, "You're starting to sound like him Kirito."

"Crap." He said quickly, "I should get some sleep. If I sound as exhausted as he does, toss me off the cliff like Kanoi did."

After making Asuna giggle behind her hand, Kirito smiled to himself before walking to his sleeping bag.

Yuse and Taiyama had made eye contact during the whole exchange, the boys turning away from pretending to sleep, and actually doing so.

..

..

Trudge forwards. Walk.

Aigen was repeating those words in his head.

He dragged his black boots forwards, breathing heavily.

After sleeping on the ground, the blue loving teen stood up, his dark blue undershirt worn proudly beneath his small leather jerkin most players had at the current stage of the game.

His movement and health points had regenerated incredibly slowly, and he had no potions on him.

Essentially, being stranded in a dried lake, the edges of which were incredibly tall, resulted in a screwed situation for young Rin Gakuo.

The boy kept walking, panting, sweaty from the virtual sun, his ninjato still tied to his back.

Wolves growled, emerging from small caves in the side of the lake.

He sighed, spitting on the ground, the saliva blowing away to glass pieces.

Aigen wiped his mouth, the wolves staring at him, drawing his ninjato, the metal ringing.

Sprinting towards them, the blade of his ninjato glowed a dark shade of blue, before he slashed directly through two wolves.

Having fought them before, he knew how they attacked, seeing a wolf lunge towards his throat, only for it to take a sword thrust to the eye, exploding to glass pieces in the air.

Spinning forwards acrobatically, Aigen yelled in rage, slashing through multiple wolves in one massive swipe, before one tried to dig its fangs into his calf.

Aigen simply lifted his right foot, before he brought his boot in a smashing motion downwards, crushing the wolf's snout.

It crumpled away to shards, and he gripped his ninjato again.

Thinking as he cut away wolves as they lunged at him, Aigen smirked as he yelled in anger.

 _If anything, I should be the leader of the group. I become stronger, with every swing of my sword, I become a better warrior. Those dunces that play this game wish they could fight like I could!_

Shoving his ninjato deeply into a wolf's eye and killing it, Aigen then re deposited his blade into its sheath on his back, the metal ringing lightly upon its re entry.

His blue-ish black eyes caught the cliffside, seeing a part of the dried lake's ridge to climb.

 _That's not that steep. All I have to do is believe in myself!_

He ran to the cliff, before grunting, pulling himself onto it, using his enthusiastic strength.

 _All I have to do is fight! Pull!_

As he went, he knew he needed nothing more than himself, his friends weren't there, Taiyama wasn't there, only himself.

Continuing to pull upwards, climbing up the cliff, not looking downwards, grunting out loudly, gripping the stones of the dried lake's edge, Aigen felt his heart beat faster.

 _I know I can fight forever in this lake. Killing every last wolf by myself, if I've lasted this long, I know I can last longer and survive! I can do it! I can...do it!_

"R..r...r...raaaaaaa!"

In a last yell, he gripped the emerald colored blades with a fist, pulling himself onto the cliff.

"I did it!" He yelled happily.

..

..

Taiyama rolled over in his sleeping bag, his eyes opening slowly to see a figure standing over him, blocking the morning sun from hitting .

Aigen smirked down at him, putting his hands on his hips, "You dick. You didn't even look for me?"

"Gakuo!"

The spear wielder jumped out of his sleeping bag before tackling him to the ground, wrapping him in a bear hug.

Taiyama laughed, "How're you alive man?"

Hearing commotion, Yuse rose from his slumber, smiling upon seeing Aigen hugged, "Gakuo!"

The three old Judo friends laughed as they hugged, Kirito and Asuna rising from their sleeping bags and yawning.

Kirito and Asuna just stood their awkwardly, not knowing Aigen as well as Tai or Yuse did.

Aigen smiled when they all stood up, "Ah. Its good to be alive man. But er...why didn't you guys come looking for me?"

"Tai intervened." Kirito said calmly, "Guy wouldn't shut up about how we'd all die trying to find you."

"Is that so? Hm." The ninjato wielding berserker nodded, "Well, what're we gonna do today?"

Taiyama stretched, "Ah...prolly not much Aigen. You all can head into town and check out that big ass cave we saw a few days ago."

"And you?" Asuna asked, putting her hands on her hips.

"Imma take a chill as f**k day. Might power up my alchemy skill, sand my spear, stuff like that."

"Have fun with that." She said, turning around and walking towards the town, her boots hitting the cobble stone roads town, the three boys following her.

"Will do." Taiyama said smiling and closing his eyes, laying on his back, staring up while chilling on the hill.

Kirito turned his head towards the shield and spear user laying on the hill, the group of four traveling towards the town, "So...did he just say what I think he did?"

"You've got a pervy mind there Ki."

"Look who's talking Yuse, you were looking at Kanoi!"

"Could ya blame me?"

"Yes!" Kirito and Asuna exclaimed at the same time, looking at the new bow user as the group walked towards town.

"Just because she's crazy doesn't mean she's not hot. Gakuo, back me up on this one."

"Er..." Aigen scratched the top of his spiky black haired head, "About that. She may be beautiful and have a nice rack...but that doesn't mean she's perfectly sane man..."

"Maybe she'd be a perfect match for Tai. He's obsessed with logic, she's obsessed with...killing. Crap, nevermind." Kirito muttered, before shaking his black haired head.

"Yeah, more on that." Asuna added, her friends at her side as they all walked towards town, "She kinda...chopped off his hand, made him scream in pain, and almost beat him to death...so no."

"Why do all the hot ones gotta be so freaking crazy?" Aigen asked.

The rapier wielder smiled, placing her hands under her chin and smiling, "If you look right here, I'm not crazy..."

Berserker or not, Aigen still had some snark to him, "Asuna...none of us should hallucinate..."

"Oh. S**t!" Yuse exclaimed, laughing with Kirito, stopping on the way into town.

"Aiiigen!" She yelled, kicking his back and sending him tumbling down the road.

Kirito looked over his shoulder, making the classic movie reference Tai would make, "Looks like our party leader is living by Hakuna Matata back there."

"Since when did he get so chill?" Yuse asked, the entire group still moving together down the cobblestone trail.

"He wasn't this laid back in the real world."

"Asuna?" Aigen asked, "You knew him in the real world too?"

"Of course I did."

"How was he with the ladies?" Kirito implored.

"Terrible. I think I was the only female aside from his mother to speak to him."

"Is it because he?..." Aigen trailed.

"Falls in love with every girl he meets? Definitely."

"Reminds me of a certain character I used to watch on a cartoon. With squinty eyes, spiky brown hair...Guy used a pan to protect his head from rain I think."

"You should've seen him drooling at Kanoi. God, the guy practically passed out..." She said, referencing her dark brown haired friend.

"Looks like this is the town." Kirito noted.

They all stood in the market place courtyard, a large circle of vendor's stands, NPC's and players alike offering their goods, and Kirito put his hands on his hips, breathing in deeply, "All right guys, I know what I want."

"What?" Aigen asked.

"A Yomo cake."

"Yomo cake?" Asuna, Aigen and Yuse asked unison, looking at the black haired beta tester, other players walking by.

"Yup! They taste amazing, plus, they refill your health! Bit on the expensive side, but its definitely worth it for the taste. There's one on every floor." He said, walking towards a pink colored vendor's stands.

Yomo was a pink haired NPC, wearing a large white hoop skirt and long hair.

Yuse rubbed his chin while looking at her.

 _She's pretty. Sure thing that Yama'd somehow be able to tell all these exact looking NPC's apart that Kirito mentioned._

"Hello, I would like three Yomo cakes." Kirito said, leaning on the wooden counter.

"Disculpame, pero yo no entiendo lo que tu dices." Yomo responded with a plain smile.

"Craaaap..." Kirito groaned, throwing his head back.

"What is it?" Yuse asked.

"Kayaba is such a dick. The floor two Yomo was made for Spanish speaking players only, just to mess with the Beta testers. Looks like he kept it that way to be the greatest dick of all time."

Yuse shrugged, "I speak some Spanish. Here, tell her this." He whispered in Kirito's ear.

The boy nodded, "Mhm. Okay. Mhm. Got it."

Kirito cleared his throat, walking up to the vendor's stand again, "Yomo. Puedo ver tu pecho?"

"Ah!" The pink haired NPC gasped, leaning back and smacking him clean across the face, making Yuse and Aigen guffaw loudly seeing him tumble to the ground.

"What did you tell him to tell her?" Asuna asked, crossing her arms while looking at them.

Yuse wiped a tear from his eye, "To see her chest."

"Dumbasses." She said rolling her eyes and helping Kirito up from being smacked to the ground, the NPC's pink mark still shining on his cheek.

"Well that was all I wanted to buy, you guys want anything?"

They all shook their heads at the boy still wearing his slap mark.

"All right, let's hit the dungeon!" Kirito said with a raised fist.

...

...

It was a massive cave, the four of them holding torches standing at the mouth of it.

A single helmet rolled out of it, before exploding into glass pieces.

Yuse shrugged, turning around and walking away, "Well, we tried."

"No we didn't." Aigen said, tugging on his red collar, making the bow user stop in his tracks, "I'm gonna destroy this dungeon!" He yelled, going berserker again, and running into it, ninjato drawn.

Asuna sighed, "This is why your life is always in danger man..."

They all followed him, going farther down its dark and rocky depths.

Yuse followed him, gasping when descending a couple floors into the catacomb.

"Wait..." Asuna said gasping, "Is that?"

"A massive mountain of gold..." Yuse responded, his notched arrow in hand, starting to get teary eyed, "No way..."

From a hole in the roof of the cave, sunlight reflected off the massive amounts of loot everywhere.

"It..." The new thief wiped a tear from his eye, "It is so beautiful...It'd make any thief go mad."

"Wait! Yuse! Don't touch that!" Kirito yelled, trying to stop him from filling his pockets with gold.

Yuse started to steal as much loot as he could, stuffing it in his inventory by picking it up and making his Col become updated.

"Why?" The chocolate brown haired bow user asked, turning his head to him.

"Because then you awaken..." The beta tester started, making them all turn around to the sound of gold falling off a massive beast who emerged from under the massive heaps of loot everywhere.

"The dragon..."

The four teens whimpered, making the bow user sigh, "I wish Taiyama was here..."

"Who dares disturb the slumber of the great Ykrak!?" The dragon bellowed, his massive red scales glinting in the sun light. His mob indicator was black, showing he was at a much higher level than all of the heroes, "Four young warriors? I will crush your bones, burn your tiny corpses! Ensure that you are cursed, along with everything you have ever done, and-Gaaaak!"

The chocolate brown haired thief had gotten bored and cracked his bow back, slipping a shaft right through the dragon's huge yellow right eye.

"Aaaaaagggggh!" The dragon groaned in pain, falling onto his back and writhing with the arrow in his eye, pixels glinting off it, "It huuuuurrtss! So f*****g bad!"

Falling onto its massive bed of gold, the red scaled dragon kept shrieking loudly in pain, cursing and writhing on it, "Ahhhhhh! Errrggghhhhh! F******k! S******t! It huuurts!"

"Ooh, I guess the lack of a pain absorber applies to mobs as well." Yuse noted nonchalantly, rubbing his chin.

"Yuse!" Asuna cried, "What is wrong with you?"

"What? He wouldn't stop talking." The teen said shrugging.

She raised a hand to indicate the writhing dragon, "You'd put an animal through the worst pain imaginable just to get rich?"

"Yes." He answered calmly, brushing past the cinnamon chestnut haired warrior to get to the monster in terrible pain. The thief drew a knife, driving it into the monster's other eye, making the dragon blast away to glass pieces.

"Ah..." Yuse said smiling, seeing the notification, "Level Twenty...Don't worry Asuna, it wasn't even a real animal, just a video game mob about to kill us, jeez. Taiyama would approve."

"Yeah, but that guy's kind of..." Aigen trailed, "Never mind."

"What, he's kind of what?" The thief asked, stealing as much gold as his hands could grab, his Col being updated constantly with a pinging sound.

"A robot of logic right?...I mean, he kind of refused to save Aig here because it seemed most logical to him, even though they're close friends." Kirito said, "Maybe if he was less like that his opinion could be more valid."

"Whatever man." The red undershirted boy atop the mountain of gold said, "Now help me clear this dungeon, there's so much gold here, it would take hours to finish this."

The others followed suit reluctantly.

..

..

"Ugh!" The group yelled, turning their heads away while walking up the hill.

"Taiyama! That's disgusting!" His chestnut haired friend cried.

"What?" He said standing up and turning around, "I was just sanding my spear." The boy noted, holding his beloved weapon in his left hand and the cat tongue like paper in the other.

They all brushed past him with sullen faces, and the four teens groaned, falling onto their sleeping bags in front of a cheery Taiyama, who kept sitting on a log by his sleeping bag, turned towards the fire he made.

"Hey guys, how was your day?" He asked with a smile, continuing to sand his spear.

"It sucked." They all said in unison.

"I got smacked in the face by an NPC. Because of Yuse."

"And a dragon almost burnt us all alive." Aigen noted.

"Let me guess." Taiyama assumed, "Because-"

"Of Yuse." Aigen, Asuna, Kirito and Tai all said together.

"I think Yuse scarred me for life." Asuna said flatly, turning upwards on her sleeping bag, seeing the starry night setting of the sky.

"How?" Taiyama asked, running the sand paper through his beloved yari.

"He made an animal shriek in front of me."

"To get that sweet loot, I think we're the richest players in the game now."

"I don't doubt that Aigen." Kirito affirmed, still mumbling into his pillow like everyone else.

Taiyama stood up, placing his sand paper back into his pocket, "I had a fun day, couldn't buff my alchemy skill though...Night." He chortled, walking off as his friends all put out the fire and went to sleep.

He walked to his spot on an isolated part of the hill, where he looked over the second floor's lake.

The reflection of the moon glimmered on it, and the boy thought, gripping his spear.

 _I won't act so lazy again. Yuse's shenanigans are things I should keep in check. I should be a better leader. Even though I had a fun day to myself up here on the parties hill, if this persists they could easily boot me from being the party leader. It's only logical._

His orange eyes kept staring out over the lake from the hill, dark brown hair waving in the night's soft wind.

 _Asuna. Aigen. Kirito. Yuse. They're all I have. I can't believe I just acted so lax. But I didn't want to risk four lives, including my own, over one. Aigen's. Just because of numbers, I've isolated myself slightly I believe._

 _I can't forgive myself for that. From now on, I promise to myself to protect them. For it is my new purpose. Keeping them all alive. It's as if this spirit of humanity I fight for, is not only my best friend, but all of my friends as well, the dream grows._

 _If Kanoi tries to hurt any of them again..._

His light brown fingerless gloved hand tightened around his spear, the leather cracking while gripping the newly sanded weapon.

 _I'll shove my yari in her eye._

 _.._

 _.._


	6. Chapter 6: Real Courage

Chapter Six: Real Courage

* * *

 _(Yuse's Spanish Accent: Sword Art Online is owned by Señor Reki Kawahara. I am the only thing owned by_ _Señor_ _Den.)_

* * *

..

..

It was the small details in life Kirito enjoyed.

Like how Taiyama and Asuna always sat with perfect postures while eating, almost as if their backs were straight like arrows, somehow trained since childhood to walk around with books on their heads. Yuse always fixed his collar when he was lying, common for a thief build like him, or how Aigen tended to grunt in frustration randomly, common for a berserker as well.

His favorite detail was the snow, he liked the way the snowflakes danced in the air, and how Aincrad's winter system was designed. It was already December after all, and Kayaba had decided to make the game according to that will.

Taiyama smiled, sipping the soup he made for everyone while feeling the midday sun on his face, "Ah…today's going to be a great day I just know it!"

Aigen gripped his cup, staring at him.

 _Your instincts are trash! Like when you thought you should leave me alone in that lake?_

Asuna shrugged, finishing her cup and standing up, "I want to go see if there are any cool items or stuff in that forest."

Taiyama shook his head, "Nah, saw a cave in the lake side the other day. I'll check it out."

"How about…we all go to the forest…because I said so?" Asuna asked.

Taiyama chuckled standing up and looking at her, "No. No. No. No. I'm the leader, you listen to me. We're going to caves."

Asuna laughed a little, "You're the leader? But your voice still cracks!"

Taiyama tried to retort but his voice cracked horribly, "I'M the oldESt, aND I'm a warRior so…" He tried to deepen his voice by clearing his throat, "I'm the leader!"

Asuna smiled, "Bet you I could go to the forest and come back with cooler loot."

He smirked, "Hah. Bet not." Tai taunted back.

She crossed her arms, "If I win I'll take the position of party leader. If you win…I'll never defy your orders again."

Kirito shrugged, "I mean...I'd follow you."

Aigen jumped out of his seat on the log by the fire giving his usual berserker grunt, "Asuna should be the leader! She's strong and her voice is smooth, not cracky like Tais over here."

Tai whipped his head to him, concerned how questioning he was of his leadership and how quick his old friend was to show it. He clenched his jaw, "Forget the bet." Taiyama scowled, "I'm keeping this group together, let's all go to the forest."

Asuna frowned back at him and took the lead, walking down the cobblestone trail ahead of everyone else with crossed arms.

Kirito caught up to her, "The hell was that? Never seen you two fight before."

"He's such a child." Asuna said simply, walking down the cobblestone road to the forest, "Guy can be full of himself sometimes. Actually all the time."

"Er…" Kirito looked over his shoulder, seeing Taiyama stare at them with his own trio following them before continuing to walk with Asuna, "Why is Tai staring at me?"

Asuna looked over his shoulder to see a Tai ignoring them completely, speaking to Yuse and Aigen calmly when walking a whispering distance behind them.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Asuna murmured, turning around and walking towards the forest.

"Right…" Kirito agreed slowly, before muttering in his mind.

 _Why do I get the feeling that guy doesn't like me? Like really, really doesn't like me?_

Asuna asked him something while walking, "Why'd you choose to follow me?"

"Er…want me to be honest?" Kirito mumbled, scratching the back of his neck.

"Yeah."

"Well…I don't really think Tai is that good of a leader. I mean, he doesn't even care about what I think about half the time, like he hates me secretly or something."

"Why would he do that?" Asuna asked, still approaching the forest with him.

"It's possible that he has a deep hatred for all lovers of this game."

"You don't say." She mumbled sarcastically before widening her eyes, "It's not like he spends half his time complaining about it."

"That too. Wish he'd shut up a lot of the time."

Asuna turned to him with a smile, "You know what? I think we're going to be excellent friends you and I Kirito."

He nodded calmly, before seeing the edge of the forest. Kirito sighed and placed his hands on his hips as the rest of the group caught up, "Well…this is it. What do you hope to find in here?"

"Actually…I kind of led myself down the rabbit hole on this one." She sighed.

"What?" Kirito hissed, "Yeah, but I'm sure we'll find something right?" He whispered worriedly as Tai, Aigen and Yuse filed into the forest.

"I'm hoping, you're the only one in the group who even remotely has a voice he listens too. Even then, he barely cares." Asuna whispered back, seeing her group leader direct the group deeper into the forest, walking at the back of the group now instead of the front.

"So this about getting Tai to listen more." He nodded with her, "Mhm, think you could make for a good leader too. Come on, I'm sure this forest is a piece of cake."

They started walking down the dirt trail together before finding themselves well into the forests depths, long lines of dark trees surrounding them. The dirt trail had a split, one way leading right and the other leading left.

Taiyama walked down the right one expecting Asuna and Kirito to follow them, but they just stood there.

"Um…Tai? Can we please go down the left path? Sure it could be riskier, but the rewards would be nicer."

He shook his head, "No. I'm the leader, and it seems, logically, that the right one is the better option. It's safer."

"I agree…" Kirito sort of hid behind Asuna to avoid Tai's squinting gaze, "With Asuna."

"Asuna, we're going down the right path."

"No."

"Why are you disobeying me as leader?"

"Because you're doing a pretty botch job of it man." Kirito cleared his throat while hiding behind Asuna.

Asuna didn't even disagree with him, instead blinking and staring at Taiyama.

Tai balled his fists, "Fine! I mean you've been doubting me, lately your loss if you disagree with me! I wanted to go to the caves, no, I wanted to go down the right path? Nooo! Fine, I don't care anymore, I'm sure the dude hiding behind your back will do a fine job collecting loot with you. Let's go guys." He walked off down the right path with Aigen and Yuse, muttering under his breath angrily.

"Want to me save your lives? No Taisuke, no, we're too stupid to listen to what you have to say!" He stopped whispering to himself, "Disgraceful. I'm sure we can find better loot on our path guys." Tai said to his old Judo buddies, crunching the snow on the forest path beneath his boots.

Asuna just shook her head slowly, "See Kirito? He's basically a baby, who thinks he needs to protect me all the time. Who uses logic as a sort of rattle. So if someone doesn't agree with his logic, they're idiots. Freaking…gah! I don't need anyone!" She stomped her foot and walked down the left path, leading Kirito along, "Never listens. Never."

Both Asuna and Taiyama had split the group in their own ways, walking in opposite directions deeper into the forest.

A giggle was heard from the treeline, "Miss me?"

Suddenly, a shadow zipped past the black haired beta tester, before a long line of red appeared on his calves. Asuna gasped, seeing him fall to the forest floor, "Kirito!"

She reached for his injured calf, but a familiar voice spoke from the shadows, "I wouldn't touch that if I were you. Wounds still transfer poison like they would in the real world here, so unless you want to get Gigaspiders venom on your hands, best back off. Or does it not stick? I don't really remember well, the beta was a long time ago."

Asuna reached for her rapier, standing up from kneeling to a groaning Kirito and reaching for her rapier, "Kanoi."

The Beta tester showed herself, stepping out of the shadows and into the wide forest trail, "Hello there. Never got your name by the way…"

...

Walking down the right side split, Aigen grunted a little in frustration while thinking and following his leader.

 _Always got to be to doing things the TAISUKE way…Give me a damned break. He's such a shitty leader too. No wonder Asuna defies him so often, she'd be better!_

Taiyama drew his spear off his back, "I think we…guys get ready."

His instincts were on pointe, as Giga spiders with glowing red eyes crawled down trees hissing loudly.

Aigen smirked, drawing his ninjato as well, "I do enjoy a good smashing!" The blade made a ringing sound as the three boys huddled together, protecting the thief with their weapons drawn.

"Stay calm you animal, one bite from those things and that's it." Tai murmured quietly, raising his shield as the thief behind him notched an arrow, "Yuse." He ordered to him, "Use fire arrows, they're vulnerable to them."

"Got it."

The spiders clacked towards them hissing loudly, before Yuse slipped a fire arrow through one of their black hides, making the mob shriek in pain and becoming defeated instantly.

"Nice." Tai murmured calmly again, before coming out from behind his shield and sticking the end of his yari through a spider's eye.

It blasted away into glass pieces as Aigen ignored his leaders orders, howling like a berserker and preparing to cut a spider in half.

"Aigen wait!"

He grunted loudly as a spider jumped into the air towards him, before pivoting into a swipe and cutting it away, "Bitch please!" Aigen yelled.

One leapt onto his back and was about to dig its fangs into his back but Yuse saved his life and shot an arrow into its skin. If he'd been a tiny bit off, Yuse would've shot Aigen in the back of the head, but his aim was true.

"Maxed out accuracy skill bi-yatch!" Yuse joked, laughing while reaching for his quiver on his back, "Sh*t." He abused the games profanity filter when realizing he was out of arrows.

Tai grunted, "This is why I hate this game's inventory system agh!" He grunted again when sending a spider into glass pieces, smashing it in the face with his large shield and allowing it to fly to a tree trunk, "You have to open your menu, select the arrows and-"

"Stop bitching about this game for two seconds!" Aigen yelled over his shoulder before cutting away another spider.

Yuse finally equipped another set of arrows when a Gigaspider snuck up on him.

Taiyama was trying his best to keep them away from the exposed thief, but he could only cover so much ground while fending off attacks himself.

So naturally, the spider dugs its fangs into his calf, making him yell in pain before falling to the forest floor.

"Yuse!" Taiyama planted his spear into the forest floor, driving past the spider's head and into the dirt. After this killed the monster Tai stood over him and looked around seeing red dots fill the treeline.

He clenched his jaw and gripped his spear and shield tighter, "F*ck you…SAO…" Taiyama insulted while Yuse's health started to drain slowly.

On the other side of the forest, Asuna was confronting Kanoi.

…

…

A gust of wind picked up as Kirito was hunched over on the ground, feeling pain extend from his calf and start to creep its way up his leg. Leaves floated by when lifted off the forest ground, as Asuna and Kanoi stared at each other.

Kanoi blinked, seeing Kirito lay on the ground, "Bring back any memories? Of me being stronger than guys?"

Asuna said nothing, unsheathing her rapier and staring at her in the eyes, looking into those cat like green orbs.

She giggled coldly, "Your little boyfriend has about two hours before that poison drains his health entirely and then…poof."

Asuna still stayed silent, as Kanoi drew her English longsword, "Whenever you're ready. You won't find the antidote on me, but I'll still try to kill you and him." She muttered to her, raising it in the air.

The girl eyed Kanoi's blade.

 _She's equipped it with Gigaspider venom. One hit and that's it for me. But her on the other hand…this is going to be an insanely hard fight._

Asuna kept thinking while having a quiet staring contest with her.

 _She beat Taisuke and Aigen. She whizzed past Kirito in a second. I think this might be the hardest fight of my life. When I come at her…I'm going to have to come at her with all I have._

 _If I lose we'll both die…If I hold back that's it. As she might actually be the strongest player in the game…_

Asuna gripped her rapier hilt so tightly that her fist cracked.

 _I'll win with everything I have!_

She summoned all the energy in her body and sprinted at Kanoi so quickly the black haired girl barely saw her coming. Kanoi gasped and caught Asuna's slash on the edge of her longsword coming inches from taking the tip of her rapier into her shoulder.

 _That was the fastest attack I've ever seen…This will be fun!_

Kanoi giggled again before swinging her poisoned sword at Asuna, who promptly dug her boots into the ground and had the reflexes to see the blade coming at her in slow motion.

 _Now!_

She sprinted forwards and tried to thrust the rapier into her stomach, before Kanoi saved her own life and caught the blade between her fingers, pushing it away and stepping aside.

Asuna turned around instantly and the two girls moved around in a circle with their swords raised.

Kanoi tried to take the chance to stab Kirito laying on the ground but Asuna slapped her sword aside in a flash and stood between them.

The beta tester unleashed furious attacks, blows so strong that they rung throughout the entire forest when caught on Asuna's rapier. A slash was thrown at Asuna's head, which made a loud ringing noise when she blocked it instinctually.

 _Her defense is strong._ Kanoi barely parried aside a blurring thrust from her while thinking. _Her offense is strong._

Asuna came sprinting at Kanoi and interrupted any attacks from her by swinging and thrusting at her with everything she had. Now Kanoi barely had the time to slash at her from the speed and energy of Asuna's attacks.

Kirito looked up from the ground to see Asuna actually driving back that green eyed beauty and smiled, still feeling the gripping pain of the Gigaspider's venom creep up his right leg.

 _If this is how I go out, watching two super-hot girls try and kill each other…then goddamn am I ready to die._

A loud yell was thrown into the forest air when Kanoi had had enough of Asuna's attacks, throwing aside a thrust and slashing through the air with all she could.

Asuna's strength stats were put to the test when she had to withstand the canon blast that was Kanoi's slash, holding the blade on the edge of her rapier before pushing it off and waving her chestnut locks in the air as to brush it off.

Kanoi laughed in disbelief while the two of them stood there and panted, the battle pausing for a moment. Their faces became coated in sweat, their upper bodies rising up and down as Asuna stood in between her and Kirito, defending him from her.

 _Those two boys I beat weren't nearly as fast as her…It could be safe to say she's the strongest person in her entire party._

 _She's the best player I've met._ They both admitted in their heads. _Without a doubt._

"What're you waiting for?" Kanoi taunted, panting and wiping sweat off her smooth cheek, "Come at me!"

"Haaahhhh!" She yelled when sprinting towards her with incredible speed.

Another loud ringing noise was made when Asuna swung at Kanoi with all she had, and when the blow landed its bone shattering power was unleashed.

Kanoi's long black hair flew backwards when an explosion of air was released from the impact of the two swords, before Asuna started to sprint around her so quickly a dust storm was raised from the forest floor.

The beta tester grunted, raising her sword when seeing a shadow sprint around her in a blur, hiding in the dust clouds.

A rapier tip flew out of it without warning. She saw it coming towards her eye before her pupils dilated.

"Enough!" Kanoi roared angrily after counterattacking. She rolled forwards with her sword extended outwards and punched the shadow in the stomach, making the dust cloud dissipate when Asuna was punched towards a tree.

She groaned quietly when landing, before rolling aside when the tip of Kanoi's longsword entered the tree trunk.

"I'll kill you! Kill you!" Kanoi yelled, swinging so quickly at her that silver lines filled the air, rebounding each time off Asuna's rapier.

Asuna focused again, seeing Kanoi coming at her in a furious thrust. The tip of her longsword flew towards the girls chest, but then Asuna moved aside to avoid the attack and thrusted back quickly fencing style.

In the matter of a second, a glowing green blade entered Kanoi's shoulder in a [Counter Riposte], ripping the white material of her plain dress in a second.

"Aghh!" Kanoi just became angrier, swiping so strongly at Asuna that when she blocked it she was sent flying to another tree.

Asuna had the reflexes to turn midair, and push herself off the tree when flying towards it like a swimmer, proceeding to thrust through the air towards Kanoi while yelling. She landed on top of her, her wrist caught by the beta tester tackled to the forest floor.

The tip of Asuna's rapier was a centimeter away from Kanoi's green eye, her right arm lifted in the air by Kanoi's grip. She grunted and kicked Asuna away.

When she stood up and got into a stance preparing for another set of attacks, Asuna saw an enraged black haired blur sprint towards her with her longsword raised in the air. Her razor sharp reflexes allowed for equally quick thoughts.

 _Her left side's soft from my thrust, it's a weak point. If I land another hit there…_

She saw the blur's yellow health gauge from the forest trail.

 _Kanoi's dead._

The girls swung at each other, Asuna prepping up her rapier behind her to meet Kanoi's in the air. The impact so strong that they flew away from each other, their boots kicking up dust as they grunted and slid away on the forest floor.

Kanoi sprinted at her again only to be met with a sudden thrust. She rolled aside to avoid it and then swung off the ground rising up from Asuna's right side, slashing her longsword through the air.

A long red line appeared across Asuna's right shoulder, making her crumple to the ground from the poison's powerful effect.

Her opponent panted, still holding her aching left shoulder in pain from Asuna's thrust. She walked over to Asuna and gripped the top of her head with her bare hand, preparing to shove her sword in her amber eye.

"I…win…" She laughed through her pants, readying to drive her blade through Asuna's skull before a voice called out, stopping her.

"Hey Kanoi!" The tall masculine boy shouted with Aigen carrying Yuse at his side, "My name is Taiyama!" He hurled his spear like a javelin, impaling Kanoi on the end of it by throwing it through the forest air.

Kanoi laid on the ground with Tai's spear driven clean through her left side, sitting in the red part of her health gauge inches from death like she once made him. From the shock of its throw, she wasn't able to murder Asuna and instead was sprawled out and almost dead, screaming in pain.

Tai walked past the bodies of his comrades on the ground and stood over to Kanoi, making her shriek in pain when driving his spear out of her body, "Where is the antidote?!" He shouted down to her.

"Th-the what?" She sputtered out, looking up at him from the ground of the forest trail wincing in pain.

He laid the tip of his spear against Kanoi's throat, prepping his right hand on the long wooden handle like a fulcrum, "I need the antidote for the Gigaspider venom! Give it to me or I'll end you!"

"I…don't have it…" Kanoi responded weakly before passing out on the forest floor.

He turned to Aigen after redepositing his spear in the holster on his back, "We'll take them back to camp, I know just how to make the antidote."

Taiyama picked up a poisoned Asuna and Kirito off the forest floor with a sigh, "This is what happens when you don't listen to me guys." He chuckled arrogantly while carrying them both on his shoulders with his impressive strength stat.

...

Yuse, Kirito, and Asuna groaned on their sleeping bags as Tai explained to Aigen, "The poison system was part of SAO's beta. It initially was going to be stripped out of the game but I guess Kayaba just had to make Gigaspider's extra deadly." He whined again as usual.

"What's the antidote then?"

"We need someone with a high level alchemy skill. I'll go into town and find someone who has one, you go collect the ingredients from the lake."

The lack of a pain absorber really started to make the three teens hurt, their poisons starting to spread from their wounds like a slow moving syrup of chilling death.

Aigen raised a black eyebrow, "Lake? Why the lake?"

Taiyama smiled when looking at the virtual sun, "The main ingredient is wolf piss and there's only one way to get it, and no you can't buy it from NPCs. Ironic how Kayaba kept that special feature in here just in case someone needed it huh? Anyway, we have the Col to buy the rest of the ingredients and such. But hurry." He turned to his three friends, "They don't have a lot of time."

The two boys nodded to each other before running off in different directions.

Aigen sighed when standing at the edge of the dried lake, "Here I go again…"

...

...

* * *

 **A/N: I considered calling this chapter Clash of the Waifus, or Duel of the Babes, but that would just turn this story into more of a meme then it already is plus it sounded really dumb. Shoutout to everyone who reviewed, and thanks for keeping up with the story peeps. Ciao!**


	7. Chapter 7: Aigen vs Taiyama

Chapter Seven: Aigen vs Taiyama

* * *

 _(Aigen grunting loudly in rage like Guts: We already know SAO is owned by Reki Kawahara if it was owned by Den I'd be the main character GRRRAAAAHHHHH! SMAASH! DESTROY WITH MAN MUSCLES! Also please note that when Kirito is near death he becomes infinitely more abridged thank you.)_

* * *

Taiyama kicked the door to the tavern open, "Who here knows how to mix wolf piss and shredded roses into an antidote?"

"Huh?" The various players having drinks there looked at each other with confused looks on their faces.

He sighed, "Anybody have a maxed out alchemy stat?"

They kept raising eyebrows in confusion, shrugging and shaking their heads at him.

"Oh I forgot." The spear wielder slapped his forehead, "This is the SAO player base." Tai got down on his fists and started grunting like a brain dead animal, "Ddurrrrrrr me needy some guy who makes weirdy thingy ah-hyuck hyuck! My friends got bitey bitey by spidey widey and I need helpy helpy!"

A man with reddish brown hair cleared his throat with his buddies, "Oh!" He fixed the red bandanna around his head, "Why didn't you say you needed a Gigaspider venom antidote? Please, stop grunting at us all like that, it's like you all see us as really stupid or something."

Taiyama blinked at the young man, seeing a large toddler fixing his diaper through his orange eyes hit his hands together like a really tall baby, "Yeah sure thing man baby." He stood up off the ground and shook his head at the illusion, "Can you please get back to my camp? Like now?!"

"Now?" He asked.

"Now, now, now, now now now!"

"All right all right jeez." He nodded to his buddies, "Be back later guys."

As they ran back to the hill out of town, Taiyama asked the young man with the red undershirt something, "Hey so, what's your name by the way?"

"Klein, yours?" He panted, running with him down the cobblestone street.

"Taiyama." Tai grunted a little, having to carry a very large metal shield with him while sprinting, "Hey you have a maxed out alchemy stat right?"

"No, but I do have the recipe for that venom you need, made one last week myself." Klein kept running at his side.

"Great thanks accept this party request now so you can go on my hill!"

"Uhh sure." Klein shrugged, hitting the {Accept} button knowing it was temporary while running.

When they reached the hill, the young man Taiyama brought back with him gasped upon seeing Kirito groan in pain on his sleeping bag, "Kirito?"

"Ballsdeep69?" Kirito winced in pain, reaching for him off his sleeping bag, "Oh my god...end my life...the pain it's too much man..."

Klein raised his trousers to see his calves before gasping, "Holy sh*t!" He abused the games profanity filter while shaking his head, "Your calves!"

There were long red lines extending from the wound Kanoi gave him, traveling up his legs and almost reaching his upper body. Asuna and Yuse had the same effects on their wounds, yelling in equal pain from on top of their own sleeping bags.

Kirito laughed in manic pain from his sleeping bag while taunting Klein, "Why don't you make us that antidote so you can go back to using the {Famous Mithril of Pig Smiting} Balls?"

"My name is Klein."

"Oh no it's not."

Aigen appeared soon afterwards holding large jars of yellow fluid, "Got the piss!" He panted, his arms covered in wolf bites.

"Wow Aig, are you okay?"

"Yeah I'm fine Tai." He coughed loudly and winced, "Just fought for my life against wolves again. Nothing new."

Klein unscrewed the jars and equipped his alchemy set. The whole time, Yuse, Asuna and Kirito all had their health lowering into the red approaching death slowly. When Klein had finished he handed out glass jars to Tai and Aigen, "Here, this should do the trick."

Tai knelt to Asuna and opened his jar, "Here, this'll save your life."

"Ugh! What is that?" She cringed at the smell.

"Crushed graphite mixed with wolf piss, don't worry, it will feel just as good as it smells." Taiyama chuckled to himself, rubbing the antidote with the infected virtual wound on her shoulder.

Klein did the same to Kirito's wounds and Aigen to Yuse's.

Seconds later and golden rings appeared around their bodies, their health refilling slowly. The long black lines that appeared like infected blood vessels began to fade off their skin.

Taiyama nodded to Klein, "Thank you. You can uh go now."

Klein opened his menu to leave Tai's party before nodding to a recovering Kirito, "Still wanna join my party now?"

"I have so much Gigaspider venom in my system that I just might." He chuckled, "Think I might be going a little crazy, but still, never in a million years will I join you, my beloved cannon fodder..."

"Wait so you'll join Tai's party but not mine?"

"Pah!" The party leader smiled, throwing a thumb to his face, "Of course he'll join me. I'm the smartest, coolest, smartest, strongest player 'round!"

"Oh! Shut the f**k up Taiyama!" Aigen shouted, balling his fists and grunting loudly like a berserker would. What bothered Taiyama as usual was that the profanity filter got in the way of his friends true emotions.

"What's your problem Gakuo?"

"You! You are my problem." Aigen pointed to him, "And stop using my real name for f**k's sake! This profanity filter gah! FFF***CK IT!"

"What? Why me?" He threw a fingerless gloved hand aside to indicate his three friends healing slowly from their wounds on their sleeping bags, "If anything, I enhance this party. I wanted to go to the caves, and when Asuna refused to listen to me, I had to save her life along with Kirito's and Yuse's. It was my knowledge of the beta that let me know what ingredients to buy and what to do. I'm the leader, and I'm better than everyone else, it's just fact. I'm right, because I'm the best."

Tai walked over to an agitated Aigen with his ruby medallion atop his chest, "See this thing?" He lifted the silver chained pendant, "It's the {Necklace of Iron Defense}. I have the best strategy, the same one I had in boxing in the real world."

"Is it really that good? Sounds like trash to me." Aigen taunted.

"Guys your egos...it's filing the air with too much testosterone..." Yuse groaned.

Seeing Aigen palm the handle of his ninjato, Klein turned pale while Tai stood calm, "Uh..." He said, "Think I'm gonna go now..." Klein promptly turned heel and fled before Aigen could unleash a blue storm of rage.

Aigen started grunting, the spiky black haired boy heaving up and down with anger while abusing SAO's profanity filter, "You left me to die...in that f**king lake...you make dead memes all the time...I'm stuck in this damned game and all you do is bitch about it all the time...you're a terrible person...no one...f**king...likes you...I got wolf piss on my hands for you...and you didn't thank me...f**ck you Taiyama!"

He sprinted at him with his fist drawn only to be tripped into the grass on the hill.

"Guys..." Asuna pleaded, "Stop fighting..." She begged from atop her sleeping bag.

Yuse and Kirito couldn't really protest, like her, they were both recovering slowly from the Gigaspider venom and were very weak.

Taiyama chuckled down to Aigen, "Wow...like a good gorilla, you always strike and move before thinking. Want me to teach you how to be chill bro?"

"Another thing!" He roared in anger, flipping back onto his feet, "Your f**cking logic! It's getting on my nerves!"

"Calm down Aigen. You're ruining the integrity of the group with all your...rage."

"Shut up!"

Tai nodded to his three friends on their sleeping bags, "You three can't protest to this but I'll do it anyway. Aig, it seems like you are in need of some dire discipline. Logically, I am going to throw a sort of leash on you because you bark like a rabid dog." He sent him a duel request, "There is no other way, look at how the rabid dog barks guys." A brown fingerless gloved hand was raised, "You want to chill out, or do this the hard way?"

Yuse, Kirito, and Asuna were all stunned. Their friend had just taken control of the situation while utterly calm with no second thoughts.

Aigen looked at his new update on his menu.

 **Duel Application**

 **Will You Accept This Duel Request?**

 **Opponent: Taiyama**

 **Duel Type: 1 vs 1**

"Tai, why're you doing this?" Yuse asked from atop his sleeping bag.

"Because Aigen is an animal. If I beat him I can show him how to take a freaking chill pill, like me. Check this out, hey loose canon boy, you want to maybe calm down a little, so we don't have to fight?"

"Die!" He growled, choosing half loss for the duel setting.

"See what I mean? He attacked me. Don't worry, notice how he disobeyed me in the forest? I can tame this dog."

...

The two boys walked to the hill across from their camp, and a gust of wind picked up, raising short and straight dark brown locks along with tiny black spiky ones while the clicking clock above them spun.

After the counter went down, neither of them so much as twitched at first.

Taiyama stared down his opponent, seeing him heave with anger.

 _Aigen's stronger than anyone in my party stat wise, he's gained loads of experience from fighting so many wolves. He's very fast too. I don't know if my {Iron Defense} ability will be enough to stop {Rage Push}. He's trained himself in this ability since SAO began as he's told me, so he knows how to use it better than anyone._

He pressed the ruby on his necklace, a loud clicking sound being emitted along with a sprinkling menu update. Afterwards, he squatted mildly and gripped his shield's strap with his left fist, his right hand tightly wrapped around his well sanded spear.

 **{Iron Defense}:**

 **Defense: +21**

 **Strength: +11**

 **Agility: -32**

 _Yuse, Asuna and Kirito are all too weak to intervene. But Aigen has too much anger inside him._ He saw how the berserker was heaving up and down with anger _. All the times I made fun of him or did something he didn't like, it's all built up inside him like a volcano. The thing is, can I take it? It's either this, or having him attack me on the parties hill._

 _The reason why I'm doing this is to calm him down, so when I defeat him I put him in his place, let him now I'm the boss. He understands nothing more than violence and strength, this is the only language Aigen speaks. Good thing I'm fluent._

"Last chance Aigen." Taiyama warned from his stance, leveling his straight yari behind him and raising his shield, "Drop your sword now and you can still back away. There's no other way."

Aigen responded by grunting loudly in rage, "Screw youuuuu!"

 **{Rage Push}:**

 **Defense: -33**

 **Strength: +12**

 **Agility: +21**

"GGAAAAHHHH!" Aigen sprinted so quickly at Taiyama that two waves of snow flew upwards from his boots while running at him. The fight began as Taiyama thought it would, with Aigen rushing him.

*PING!*

A spiky black haired monster of rage wearing a blue undershirt covered by a level one player jerkin blurred up to Taiyama and swung with all he had. A loud ringing noise was made when the shot reflected off the {Shield of Emirise}.

"If you hold back on me I'll kill you!" He roared.

"Chill out Aigen." A voice chuckled from behind his shield.

Aigen responded by sprinting at him and activating a whirring sword skill. Multiple blue glowing {Slash Swipes} rebounded off Tai's huge shield with loud *PING*s that shattered the air with his strength.

Tai grunted, using all the strength in his left arm to take shots that would shatter most player's arms.

 _Goddamn are these hits strong. My defense can take it, but how many can my shield take?_

"GRAAHH! RAH! RAH! RAH!" With every grunt of rage came another pivoting slash from Aigen. He was so strong that Tai had to time squats to swipes to withstand the storm of rage unleashed onto his shield.

"How many hits can that shield take?" Kirito's jaw dropped while laying weakly on his sleeping bag.

The party leader started to give ground, backing up while the furious attacks followed. Aigen continued swiping his ninjato with all he had, Kirito watching with analytic intent.

 _I fear no man._

Aigen gave another grunt, building up enough speed to flip over Taiyama and land behind him. He kept hacking away so quickly at him in rage that his spiky black hair whipped about in the air like waving onyx colored blades of grass in the air. Aigen stopped slashing for a moment, before his ninjato became a series of silver lines swung at him once more.

 _But that...thing of anger. It scares me. That speed, that strength._ More ringing ping noises were made off Tai's shield. _It's approaching the level of one person. Me. Or Kanoi perhaps. Maybe her and I could settle that one day..._

Clouds passed Aincrad's afternoon sky as Aigen released an endless number of swings, his energy boundless. His heart kept beating out of his chest, his spiky black hair whipping through the air from his speed. Clanging noises filled the air, as Taiyama started to pivot as Aigen tried to go around his shield to land shots.

Aigen sprinted around his guard and tried to thrust his ninjato right into Tai's shoulder. The tip of the blade just slid right off the shield when Taiyama turned to face his opponent. Aigen felt {Rage Push} fuel more of his anger, velocity and strength. The berserker kept sprinting around in a circle around the boxer, throwing off shots randomly only to glance clean off Tai's huge shield.

This continued for some time, until their friends recovered, the sun shining brightly as the boys kept fighting. Asuna intervened at the right time, standing up and catching Aigen's ninjato on the edge of her rapier, "Calm down!" She shrieked, standing between them, "Aren't you two friends?"

"Friends?" Aigen laughed while baring his fangs at the sudden girl between him and his opponent, "That's no friend, to any of us!" He threw his nose upwards to Taiyama, "He's a monster. Get out of my damn way!"

"Aigen-"

"Now!" He barked but kept panting, his chest heaving up and down as he threw virtual sweat off his forehead into dissipated crystals.

Asuna shook her head and kept holding his blade on hers, but Aigen had the strength to pick the slender girl up and throw her off the hill and onto the road dismissively before sprinting at Taiyama in a blind rage.

Taiyama kept pivoting around in a circle as a spiky haired warrior filled with pure fury flew about him throwing off silver lines in attacks while running in a circular motion as well.

 _With every attack I'm getting better at blocking him._ He deflected another slash from Aigen's ninjato skillfully by deflecting it off his shield. _My boxing strategy still stands. He'll tire himself out against my guard, and then that's it._

It almost became routine, Aigen would stop sprinting around him in a circle and randomly swing his ninjato at him. Only for it to be deflected off Tai's shield again and again. Minutes ran by as Aigen never ran out of energy, screaming angrily while pounding Taiyama's shield with his blade in violent slashes and swipes. Clanging noises failed to cease, bell-like pinging sounds emitted loudly from Tai's defense blocking Aigen's endless rage.

Hacking for minutes on end, Aigen's sweat flew off his body, matched with Tai in height but not patience, the berserker was failing in every regard to pierce through Taiyama's {Iron Defense} strategy.

Aigen threw one last swipe at him, which was promptly blocked by rebounding off Taiyama's shield. He continued gasping for air as their three friends watched from the hill across from them. They failed to intervene, afraid that they might catch a ninjato to the face. They were all shocked, about fifteen minutes of pure strikes had passed, but...

Every single one had been pivoted to from their specific angle and blocked accordingly. For fifteen straight minutes.

Aigen practically collapsed onto his Japanese straight sword, gripping the handle tightly and leaning his weight onto it, "How...how..." He coughed while panting, "How could you block all that?"

There was no response on the other side of that tall and curved rectangular shield, his opponent remaining calm and silent.

He grunted again, "What're you waiting for? Counter attack dammit!" Aigen ordered.

About a minute of silence passed before Aigen's movement points regenerated entirely. The story begun once more, blurring strikes sent from an enraged Aigen were deflected consistently as Taiyama timed a block to his opponents strikes. By squatting at the right moment and pivoting in the right direction, his shield did its job of protecting his body from otherwise fatal ninjato slashes.

Snow kept flying upwards as Aigen sprinted so quickly it was thrown into the air from his boots, which was soon followed by more furious attacks.

Tai never sent out a counter attack with his spear, knowing it would be far too slow to make a difference, random thrusts or yari swipes were never sent to interrupt the constant attacks. Instead he kept defending, and eventually he was right. Aigen looked downwards with sweaty black spiky hair, frozen while barely standing. Aigen's movement points were completely nonexistent, after whisking so many shots away at his opponent there was no other alternative.

He leaned forwards to weakly throw a thrust towards Taiyama but his opponent just stepped back and it missed. He tried to swipe through the air daintily but Taiyama used his trait buffed strength stat to bash Aigen in the face with his shield, sending him flying into the snow while knocking his sword out of his hand.

Aigen landed in the snow with a light grunt, trying to stand up before Tai pressed his boot to his chest, flattening him against the hill covered in snow. Tai picked up Aigen's ninjato quietly, before throwing it into the dried lake basin. He then drove the tip of his spear through Aigen's stomach as if he was pressing a fork through a piece of steak, making him wail in pain until eventually his health reached half of its total capacity and the duel was over.

Taiyama had won without so much as a single point of health dropped.

A new proud and calmly masculine voice rung out from Taiyama's lips, "The fight's over. I promise you shall not be hurt now."

Yuse, Asuna and Kirito all ran to the hill as Taiyama stopped pressing Aigen to the hill with his foot and instead brushed off a small bit of snow that landed on his shoulder nonchalantly. Aigen stood up and grunted, holding a hand over his belly where Tai stabbed him, "M-My sword..."

"It's your punishment." Tai blinked as his friends stood behind him while still speaking in his deep tone, "You tried to attack me and I took action immediately. I don't stand for defiance, only discipline."

"You bastard!" Aigen roared, "You punish me for being mad at you? For reasons completely justified?!"

"Everything is subjective." Tai blinked calmly again, "Now. I think I'll still let you be in my group. If you promise to do as I say, like a good warrior of mine."

"Of mine?! Of mine?!" Aigen exploded in his equally manly voice, "How am I yours?!"

Taiyama pointed the tip of his straight yari to Aigen's head, lifting it above the snowy grass, "I have defeated you. You are weaker than me. You belong to me now." He pressed the ruby medallion with the silver chain on his chest, his {Iron Defense} trait ending.

Aigen clenched his fist, wanting to knock Tai's teeth out, "I'd rather die than spend another minute of my life with you!" He yelled at the top of his lungs.

The calm party leader's expression changed from deadpan to utterly shocked, "Am I?...Am I really that horrible?"

"Yes!" Aigen exclaimed, "You complain about this game non stop! You refuse to admit when you are wrong, you think you're right one hundred percent of the time, everything has to be your way no matter what! You're like a five year old who's actually sixteen! I could go on but my throat is hurting from grunting and yelling!"

"Hm." Tai looked down at his boots. Not sadly, but contemplatively, almost as if there was something changing inside him, "I see." He looked upwards and used his calm orange eyes to stare at Aigen, "What shall you do then? You're a boy with no sword and no friends if you leave us. Do you really think you can fly solo?"

"Yes!" Aigen yelled again, his voice becoming hoarser from yelling so much. He pointed into the dried lake Taiyama threw his ninjato into, "You know what I learned in there? That I'm strong enough on my own to take on whatever comes my way! I've wrestled wolves bare handed, fought till I couldn't stand! I bet you I have the highest strength stat around! I don't think I'm strong enough to be a solo player, I know I am."

"That's your problem Aig. You're disobedient and brash, striking no matter if I told you so or not. Your arrogance matches your tenacity."

"Arrogance? Arrogance? Arrogance?! Are you seriously going to talk to me about arrogance you f**king egomanical piece of sh*t?"

"Yes."

Aigen threw his hands up in desperation, "That's it! I'm gone!"

He began to walk away before Taiyama spoke out, "I made a promise to myself to defend you from harm. And keep you in this little pen of safety. Behind my shield dude."

"That's another problem of yours Tai." Aigen whipped around and turned to Taiyama, grinding his teeth together while speaking through a clenched jaw, "You think far too much about what other people think about you, that's why you defend people with that big ass shield of yours! To feel good about yourself! But you wanna know what I think of you?" He raised a middle finger, "Go **** a **** you b**** ass mother******!"

He stormed away before anyone could react properly in time.

Taiyama blinked again, frowning from his perfect posture while standing.

...

...

Yuse, Kirito and Asuna all just sat by the fire that night while Taiyama sat by himself on the far end of the hill's tree. Leaning against it, he stared out over Aincrad with calm orange eyes and a steadily deadpan gaze, his spear laying back in the leather holster on his back.

The three teens by the fire just gave each other awkward looks and occasionally coughed. Eventually, Yuse cleared his throat, "So uh...anyone want to hear a joke? I got a lot of good ones."

"Ugh." Kirito scoffed, throwing his half eaten piece of pig meat onto the snowy hill's grass, "I'll go talk to him."

Kirito walked up to Tai slowly, "Uh...dude? Everything all right with you? You haven't eaten or said anything for the past six hours. Are you okay?"

There was silence.

The crickets tweeted, and the soft night's wind pushed the grass tips that poked out of the snow on that special hill.

Taiyama stood up off the tree, blinking while gazing at the moon, "No." He shook his head, "No I'm not Kirito. 'I'd rather die than spend another minute of my life with you.' Do you know what it's like to hear that?"

"I-"

"Do you know?"

"No."

"No, of course you don't." Taiyama was still completely calm, immobile in his stony expression, "I made a promise to myself. That I'd keep Aigen alive, because he meant a lot to me. And then I realized something, that he was right."

"Tai-" Kirito started.

"No. He really was. I am a monster." Taiyama kept speaking in his deep tone, "The only reason I made that promise was because...for my whole life, I've always been searching for approval. My father told me, 'Son, you'll get that sharp brain of yours knocked out of your head if you box.' And because I was so desperate to prove him wrong." He punched his left palm so hard the air snapped loudly like a firecracker, "I trained so hard that when I got into my first boxing match I paralyzed my opponent."

"Wow." Kirito blinked, "I uh..."

"I know right? I needed the approval of my father so much that I hospitalized a person just to get it." He withdrew the spear off his back, and lifted the tip to the glimmering night's sky, "I finally know now who I should really fight for, Aigen showed me that today. I know who I must finally be. Myself." He gripped the wooden shaft of his yari so tightly his knuckles cracked, "I never liked you Kirito. Want to know why?"

"Wh-why?"

"Yuse told me your little secret a few days after we defeated the first boss. You like this game don't you?"

Kirito looked away in silence.

"Something as foolish as that sickens me, you never came off to me as particularly interesting or intelligent or cool. Just one of those everyday people you meet in life. Not that there's anything wrong with that, the problem is you have nothing to fall back on if you like this game." Taiyama began to walk over to him, spinning his spear in the air like a cyclone before depositing it back on the holster on his back, "You want to know why I've stuck along with you so long? Asuna insisted. But you know what Kirito? I don't need her approval anymore, I'm tired of being a puppet that lies on the strings of the opinions of others. I'm taking control of my life, I'm doing what I want because I am Taiyama."

"What do you mean?"

"I want you to leave my party Kirito. Yeah, I see the way you look at Asuna, I'm no idiot. You think I want you to infect her with your foolishness? No." Tai shook his head, "That day in the boss room. I delivered a speech built on the best use of logic I could muster, and I saved you from being isolated from the entire player base. If you walked into the town square right now, no one would look at you funny. But if it wasn't for me, who would be your friend? Who would you be with?"

Kirito couldn't respond, instead Taiyama kept speaking.

"No one. And you never held the decency to thank me. You're too arrogant for your own good, and I'm tired of keeping you here for Asuna's approval."

Yuse and Asuna looked from the campfire to see two dark figures risen in darkness from the hill, their outlines marked clearly in the moonlight, the stars glimmering white in the black night's sky behind them. The taller figure pointed off the hill, and the shorter one bowed his head in shame. He looked up and appeared to be talking, only for a few choice words from his ex party leader to mark the sky.

"Find your own path. As we must all walk down our own."

The shorter figure nodded, turning around and walking off alone, after having been ejected from the hill verbally. Afterwards, Kirito opened his menu on the road Klein and Taiyama had sprinted down earlier that day to leave the party manually, before walking by himself down the cobblestone road.

It wasn't long before two names instead of four rested beneath Taiyama's avatar name: Yuse, and Asuna.

When he returned to his sleeping bag to rest, Asuna and Yuse kept sitting next to each other on a log by the fire.

Seeing it crackle and sparkle, Yuse looked to the girl at his side, "Asuna. I'm guessing you're thinking that now that all the competition is gone, I'll try and pursue you right?"

"Uh..."

The thief with the red undershirt and bow slung over his shoulder chuckled quietly, "No. I wouldn't do that. You liked Kirito didn't you?"

Asuna turned to him and avoided the question entirely, "Are you all right Yuse?" She asked, seeing him frown and stare off into the fire.

"I'm not. Aigen was my best friend for years, did you know I have glasses in the real world?" Yuse smiled and turned to her, shyly placing a chocolate brown lock behind his ear, "My real name is Akiyoshi Kuroudai, and my best friend just left me." He frowned back to the fire, flicking his brown eyebrows upwards.

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because you're the only person in this party I trust anymore." Yuse admitted.

"Why didn't you intervene when Tai fought him then?" Asuna further implored.

"Couldn't. What would I do? Fire an arrow right into that battle? I have the accuracy skill for it sure, but hurting someone like Taiyama? No. Aigen's lost my respect too, this game's turned him into an animal of rage. Attacking people randomly's not my style, good job trying to break it up though. Did you see the way he attacked Taiyama? It's a miracle he didn't send him flying off that hill. Speaking of which he threw you like you were nothing."

They both turned from looking at each other and watched him snooze in his sleeping bag. Asuna nodded, "Taiyama's defense is amazing from what I saw today. But I...I feel like this game's changed him too, just as it's changed Aigen for you."

"What do you think the rest of the game will be like? Without them?"

Asuna shrugged and stood up, wiping some dust off her knees, "No idea. Asuna Yuuki. That's mine by the way, I'll do it out of modesty I suppose as you gave me yours. And I think you might be the only thief I'll ever trust."

"Good night." Yuse smiled kindly.

"Good night Yuse." Asuna returned to her sleeping bag away from Taiyama's which was occupied and Yuse's which was empty. Yuse just sat there, staring off into the fire.

...

* * *

...

 **Well here's a quick AN for you all to round this out. Next chapter should be...I have no idea when, but I think I have to notify you all that it would include a massive time skip. I know many people won't like this, but I basically will be writing for about a... _(does some QUICK MATHS and comes back)._..yeah at the rate I'm going this should be finished in years maybe? That's without timeskips. I dunno, but I really wanted to get into the crux or middle of this story. I got the intro out of the way I'm pretty sure now, so I can focus on making this more like a parody as it's Abridged AU and oh yeah I forgot to mention two important things.**

 **It will be a long time until the next update. A) I have loads of school work. B) I'm just not really feeling SAO vibes off the fandom right now. What I mean by that is that there are like, barely any quality stories right now being updated in my opinion, as my favorite authors are all super busy as well. This could be put up to much debate, but when I see the T rated section right now all of the stuff I'm interested in (humanized Kirito, Abridged stuff, quirky OCs etc, good or funny parodies, good KiritoXAsuna fics...) it just isn't there.**

 **At least in the T and under rated section. M's doing all right as Fail's back from hiatus finally. Oh and theawesomenss1 is uploading on Ignis Rex Ignition. But that's basically it, no offense to other SAO writers it's just how I feel. I'm not claiming they're all not interesting to me or not quality, I just want to express myself openly.**

 **When I come back, whenever that may be I don't know, I'll probably rework and revamp my older chapters because there's a lot of cringe in those on this story. I mean you have hints at pairings that will never come, confusingly descriptive fight scenes etc. So if I do update on this story it'll be changing the first few chapters into third not first person and getting rid of a lot of bad stuff.**

 **I got an opinion from someone stating how this would all be better in third person and they turned out to be right. Sure it's less personalized, but whatever I have no idea how to use first and third is the thing I'm experienced at.**

 **If you skipped those massive paragraphs, here's it summarized!: A) I have no idea when the next chapter will be but it won't come for a while. B) If I do update it will be reworking the first few chapters into third person with some small changes added to better the story. And THEN I will move on from there.**

 **Until next time whenever that may be, peace out. -Den**


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